Replay
by Makokam
Summary: What do you do when you get a second chance, but you don't even know you had a first?
1. Game Over

Replay: Game Over

Slowly, Harry picked himself up from the floor, clutching his arm as it bled through one of the many tears in his robes. Halfway up his body was wracked with convulsions as he coughed blood into his hand. He whipped it away with his left hand, his right being nearly useless and barely able to hold his wand, leaving only a small trickle of it at the corner of his mouth.

Perhaps a dozen feet in front of him stood Tom Riddle, hunched over slightly and holding his stomach. He glared at Harry and spoke for the first time since their duel began, "So, Harry, ready to give up and die peacefully? Or will you continue this pointless endeavor?"

Harry sneered back at him. Yes, the destruction of the horcruxes had returned him to mortality, but Tom still was the most powerful Dark Wizard of the age. And though at first Harry had succeeded in giving as good as he got, about five minutes ago the duel started going downhill. Tom had cast a cutting curse that had nearly severed Harry's wand arm. His arm had been next to useless since then and he had been forced to duel left handed for a time. He still had hope though; right up until that last hex had knocked him through the air like a rag doll. But he wasn't going to give up. He was the only thing standing between Tom and the entire Wizarding world.

He needed more time though.

The battle raged downstairs, and whichever side won that battle would ultimately determine who won this one. If the Order won, then he just needed to hold on until they could come to his aid, and then he would be able to destroy him. But the fact was that right now he was just outclassed.

It all hung on Severous and Draco. They were the wildcards. They would turn the tides in favor of one side or the other.

"Go shove it up your arse, Riddle." Harry smirked to himself. With Hermione's death Ron was coming down on his foes with the wrath of a god and would probably succeed in killing Tom if Harry failed, prophecy or no prophecy.

It was amazing how many of the oddest curses, hexes, and jinxes had been thrown in this duel. Harry still couldn't believe that the Dark Lord had cast a Jelly Legs jinx at him. But then, he wasn't one to talk, he'd actually cast a cheering charm on him. It was all about coming up with something that the other guy wouldn't expect, and that would hopefully distract your opponent. Tom had only looked on in confusion when Harry had cast the charm. It wasn't until he had to stop from giggling himself sick, which was creepy in and of itself, to deflect a disarming spell the he had understood.

"Fine then," the dark lord said scowling at Harry, "I'll just end this now then."

Harry swung his arm up and was about to cast his spell when there was a flash and Tom was gone. Less then a second later he felt the tip of a wand being pushed into the back of his neck.

_Bloody. Hell._

"Any last words, Potter?" there was a pause barley long enough to take a breath and then, "No? Fine. Reducto!"

Harry didn't feel any pain. What was left of his body was still struggling to comprehend that most of his neck, the base of his skull, and his upper back had been blown open, and that half of his spine had shattered into dust.

His eyes stared blankly, not taking in the fine red mist drifting around his body as he was thrown forward into the floor. He still didn't feel it yet, but he knew he was dead.

_I've failed._

And then it all came rushing through him. The pain started convulsions that only caused more pain. His body screamed as nerves fired harder and harder searching for a response from nerves that weren't there.

The world quickly began turn white as if bright light was speeding towards him.

_Please…Let me have another chance…_


	2. Year One: The Letters

Message from the Mako: Sorry this chapter took as long as it did to get up. There problems with the beta's, namely none of them getting back to me, so I just decided to hell with it and post up the version I'd edited myself. It's also a bit short, since I was trying to avoid redundancy and get ahead to where things start changing, and as you can see, things are going to start changing in the next chapter.

Apologies and Nods:  
To- J. K. Rowling, Sorry about using your characters and bits of your book. Please don't sue me. ;

* * *

Replay: Year One: The Letters 

Harry Potter woke with a start and hit his head on something hard.

"Ow," he said rubbing his forehead, "What was that?"

Then he remembered he was in the cupboard under the stairs. He frowned for a moment, suddenly puzzled as to why he was in the cupboard under the stairs, and then the moment passed.

"I said get up!" his Aunt screeched from outside, "I need you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn. I want everything perfect for Dudders's birthday."

"Yeah, okay, whatever."

"What was that?" she snapped.

"Nothing," he said and started dressing.

Dudley's Birthday. It was strange how it felt like he had completely forgotten Dudley's Birthday; after all, it's all he's been hearing about for the last month. His mind started to wander as he picked spiders off of random pieces of clothing, and it slowly drifted to the dream that had woken him up.

All he could remember of it was a cold voice asking him if he had any last words and mind blowing pain.

He finished dressing and headed down the hall to the kitchen, where there was a large pile of presents, which seemed to include a new computer, another television, and, of all things, a racing bike.

He turned to the stove and started flipping the bacon as his Uncle Vernon came in, barked, "Comb your hair," and sat down at the table with the morning paper. He made a token attempt at straightening his hair, then moved the bacon to a plate and started frying eggs when his aunt came in with his Cousin Dudley.

Harry had just finished putting the eggs and bacon on the table when Dudley expressed his disappointment at only having thirty-six presents. Two less then last year. Harry wolfed his food down as quickly as he could in case Petunia's bribery didn't work and Dudley flipped the table over. Vernon expressed his pleasure at Dudley for wanting to get his money's worth, just like him, as the phone rang and Harry received what could end up being the best or worst news he'd get all day. Mrs. Figg had broken her leg and wouldn't be able to take him.

Four bad ideas, three fake sobs from Duddly, two rings at the doorbell, and one friend of Dudley's later, Harry was being warned not to do anything funny as he was loaded up into the car to go to the zoo with them.

It was a remarkably good morning. One where his Uncle Vernon didn't yell at him, he got a lemon ice pop through good timing, he wasn't hit by Dudley or his friend Piers, and he got to eat half a sundae because Dudley complained that his first one wasn't big enough and Vernon bought him another. This, however, was as far as his good day went.

In the Reptile house, Dudley and Piers sought out the largest snake in the building only to find it sleeping peacefully. After a couple of failed attempts to make it move by tapping on the glass the boys abandoned the snake as a lost cause.

"Sorry about that," Harry said to the snake, he didn't know why really.

"Don't worry; I get that all the time"

Harry froze and turned slowly back towards the snake, which had raised its head up and was looking at him curiously. Suddenly, looking at the snake made it seem much less weird, "It must get really irritating."

"You have no idea," it said, shaking its head.

"So where do you come from, anyway?"

"Brazil, it sseemssss," It said, looking up at the sign on the glass.

"It seems?"

"I've never been there," It said and used its tail to tap the sign where it said, "Bred in captivity"

"Oh, well that's a shame isn't it?"

The snake nodded its head only to be shocked wide eyed when Piers screamed for Dudley and Mr. Dursley to come look at what the snake was doing. Dudley marched up to the glass and punched Harry in the ribs, sending him sprawling onto the floor.

Harry glared up at Dudley, who was leaning against the glass staring wide-eyed at the snake, and suddenly he pitched forward into the enclosure. Piers and Dudley shrieked as the snake uncoiled itself and slithered out onto the floor. Everyone in the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits, except for Harry, who waved back as the snake called out, "Thanksss amigo! Brazil, here I come!" and flicked the end of its tail at Harry in a short wave.

The zookeepers were clueless and the Dursleys were furious. It didn't help matters when Piers insisted that Harry had been talking to the snake.

-o-o-o-

After he was finally allowed out of his cupboard, there wasn't much of anything of note, except for when Dudley almost ran Mrs. Figg over on his racing bike, and Dudley getting his new school uniform, complete with a knobbly stick that he used for hitting Harry, until for the first time in his life, Harry received a letter.

He actually felt lucky that he had been sent to get the mail when he saw the letter addressed to him, and there could be no doubt that it was to him; it even listed his cupboard in the address. He paused to examine the letter for a moment, which was made of a thick and heavy parchment and had his address written in shining emerald ink, before heading towards the kitchen. Halfway there however, he stopped. He suddenly had a very bad feeling about taking his letter into the same room as the Dursleys.

He decided to quickly toss his letter into his cupboard to read later, but as he opened the door his Aunt stormed over to him, "And just what do you think you're doing with our mail?" she yelled at him.

"I wasn't doing anything with your mail. I just wanted to put my letter in my cupboard to read later."

"A letter? For you? How utterly absurd. Who would ever send you…a…letter…" she trailed off as she spotted his letter among the bills, coupons, and postcards.

Her eyes were practically bulging out of her sockets as she tore the letter open, ignoring Harry's protesting cry of, "Hey that's mine!" Her eyes scanned the letter quickly as the color drained from her face, "V-V-Vernon!" she cried.

"What it is?" he asked and took the letter she held out.

"Let me see!" Called Dudley as he tried to take it from his father.

"Let _me_ see it, as it's _mine_!" Harry shouted.

"OUT!" Vernon bellowed, "Get out! Both of you!"

When they both continued to try and get their hands on the letter, Vernon grabbed both of them and shoved them out the front door and slammed the door shut. The two boys scrambled to look through the mail slot, but they only ended up being able to see the kitchen door closing.

Later that evening, Vernon decided to move Harry out of the cupboard under the stairs, and, much to Dudley's dismay, into Dudley's second bedroom. Harry was too focused on his letter to be happy about it though, and was even less happy when Vernon said he'd burned the letter.

Harry spent most of the evening laying on his new bed amongst all of Dudley's broken things mourning the loss of his letter. As he thought about it more however, he became sure that he would be getting another.

The next morning proved him right. Though he still didn't get to read it, as Dudley got to it first, then Vernon had taken it and then thrown the both of them out. Again.

The following day, Harry woke early to try and intercept the mailman before he even got to their house. But as he walked down the steps, he stopped, something didn't feel right. As his eyes adjusted to the light he spotted his Uncle camped out in front of the door.

Harry swore under his breath and tried to figure out a way around his Uncle. After a moment, he wanted to hit himself for his stupidity. The back door.

He moved down the rest of the steps and down the hall as quietly as possible as to not wake his uncle. He pushed the kitchen door open carefully, watching over his shoulder to make sure his Uncle didn't stir. He hadn't moved and so Harry gently closed the door and turned head out into the back yard.

_I don't bloody believe it. _

There, sitting in a chair against the door, wrapped in a blanket, was his Aunt Petunia. Harry grumbled a bit as he tried to figure out where to go from there. He moved into the living room so that his pacing wouldn't wake her or his Uncle. And that's when it hit him. He could slip out through the window.

He moved quickly and quietly over to the window, unlocked it, and started to lift it open. It got stuck at one point when it was still too low for him to squeeze through, and the resulting squeal when he shoved it open caused him to stand frozen, listening to his heart pound somewhere in the vicinity of his ears until he was absolutely sure nobody was going to come investigate.

He slipped through the window and landed in the flower garden. Aunt Petunia wasn't going to be pleased with that, but then, she wasn't going to be pleased anyway. He moved carefully and quietly until he reached the sidewalk and then he ran down the road to where the postman would turn onto their street.

-o-o-o-

He had to wait for around an hour before the postman came. He felt lucky that neither his Aunt nor Uncle had thought to go looking for him. They probably felt they were lucky he was still in his room so they could deal with the letters quietly. That is, if there were letters coming today.

The postman looked at him strangely when he asked him if he had any mail for "Harry Potter", but handed over the three letters. Harry was about to tear into them when a thought struck him; he'd get away with this easier if the Dursleys thought they had gotten his letters and so he caught up to the postman and gave two of them back. He didn't say anything when the letters were handed back, but he did raise an eyebrow.

Harry then eagerly tore open his letter and read the contents. His eyes almost popped out of his head as he read it and he collapsed against a street lamp.

_Well this explains a lot…_


	3. Year One: Diagon Alley

Replay: Year One; Diagon Alley

Harry lay on his bed in the smallest bedroom, staring at the ceiling. _So, I'm a wizard_, the thought ran through his head for thousandth time in the last five days. He rolled over and pulled the letter from under his pillow, "_We await your owl by no later than July 31," _which was today.

But what did that mean; "your owl"? And where would he get things like a wand or a cauldron? And what would he buy them with if he could find a place that sold them? The telescope would be easy though; he was sure there was one lying amid all of Dudley's things.

Suddenly there was a knock on his door and his Aunt calling for him to get up and fix breakfast. You'd think they'd at least make their own breakfast on his birthday, "I'm coming!" He stuffed the letter under his pillow and headed down the stairs. In the kitchen Dudley was arguing with his mother over whether or not they could have a T.V. in the kitchen, and then complaining about how long breakfast was taking, only to then go back to the T.V.

Harry started some eggs and toast then poured glasses of orange juice for all of them. Nobody said anything to him during breakfast, and that was almost as good as a Birthday Present.

After breakfast Harry cleared the dishes and was starting to wash them when there came a knock at the door like the beating of a drum. Harry froze, so did everyone else, except for Vernon, who turned his head to stare at Harry. Harry gulped.

The booming knock came again and Vernon shakily got up from the table and moved towards the hall. He opened the hall and the rest of them peered around him. The knock came again and they could see the door shake on it's hinges. Going paler all the way, Vernon moved slowly down the hall and opened the door.

And there stood a man so wide and tall that all those still in the kitchen could see of him was his chest down. Vernon, however, could see the man clearly and obviously wished he couldn't. To those that new him, the wild hair and beard and glittering black eyes appeared friendly. All Vernon saw was a giant who looked like he was happy to find a meal.

"Mr. Dursley?"

Vernon squeaked out an affirmative.

"I'm Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of Keys and Grounds and Hogwarts School. I'm looking for Harry Potter."

Dudley turned to star at Harry as if he was something venomous that might bite and Petunia passed out.

Vernon's mouth just opened and shut like a gasping fish and Harry took a hesitant step forward. "Ah! There yeh are!" He looked back at Vernon, "Yeh don' mind if ah come in do yeh?"

Vernon just continued to gape at him.

Rubeus looked nervously at the man in front of him before saying, "Ah, righ'. I'll just come on in then."

He ducked in through the door and into the house, his head brushing against the ceiling. "We were wonerin' why we 'adn't heard from you, so I came by the check on yeh.

"Uhm…" Harry responded, "I… uh… didn't know how to."

"Yeh didn't?"

"Uh, no Hagrid, I didn't."

Hagrid frowned at Harry for a moment before saying, "Righ' then, guess I should tell 'em everything's fine then." Hagrid then pulled a rather ruffled looking owl, a quill and a bit of parchment out of one of the many pockets of his overcoat. He held the parchment against the wall, as the owl perched on his shoulder, and wrote,

_Dear Professor Dumbledore,  
Harry's fine._

_Taking him to get his things now.  
Rain's finally cleared up. Hope you're well._

_Hagrid  
_

,and then tied the note to owl's leg and sent it off through the still open front door.

Harry watched it fly off, making Vernon dive to the floor in the process, then turned back to Hagrid and asked, "Where's it going?"

"Teh Hogwarts."

"Ah. … Where's Hogwarts?"

"Ah, well that's not somethin' ter talk abou' in front o' muggles now is it," he said with a wink.

"Oh, I guess not."

"Righ', I'll take you to get your school things then."

"YOU MOST CERTIANLY WILL NOT!"

Hagrid blinked. It seemed that he, like Harry, had forgotten the Dursleys were even there.

"What?"

"I am not paying to send him to some freak show of school to learn magic tricks!"

Hagrid turned and dew out a pink umbrella and pointed it and Vernon as if it were a sword, "You watch your mouth Dursley. Hogwarts is the best school of magic in the entire world. Any witch or wizard would be honored to be accepted."

Vernon stared at the tip of the umbrella only inches from his face, "Mimblewimble."

"Righ' then." Hagrid put the umbrella, "We'll be on our way now." Hagrid waved for Harry to follow him as he started to walk through the door then stopped and slapped on of his dustbin lid sized hands against his forehead, "Gulpin' Gargoyles, I almost forgot." He turned back towards Harry as he rummaged around through the many pockets of his overcoat, "I've got sommat fer yeh. I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste alright." From an inside pocket he pulled a slightly squashed box and handed it Harry, saying, "Happy Birthday Harry."

Harry took the box and carefully opened the box to see a large, sticky chocolate cake with _Happy Birthday Harry_ written on it in green icing. Harry looked up at Hagrid, beaming, "Thank you."

"Yer Welcome," he said, beaming back, "Now hurry up, we can eat some on the way," and hurried them past a very stunned Vernon Dursley.

-o-o-o-

It had taken them a while to find their way to a train station, and when Harry asked why they didn't just call for a cab, Hagrid looked at him, then down at himself, and Harry figured out why. When they got there they found they were just in time to catch the next train to London and Hagrid hurriedly handed Harry the "muggle money" since he had trouble figuring it out and they didn't want to miss it.

On the train, Hagrid sat with a sigh and took up to seats to himself. Harry noticed that Hagrid either didn't notice that people were staring at them, or was able to ignore them. Harry wished he had the same skill.

Harry looked around the train nervously then back to Hagrid who had pulled out a newspaper. Harry, desperate for some sort of conversation to distract him, started scanning the front page of the paper for something to talk about.

"What's the Ministry doing?"

Hagrid grunted, "Messin' things up, as usual. Almost wish Dumbledore had taken the position of Minister o' Magic when they offered it, but he'd never leave Hogwarts. So Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one."

"Well," Harry made sure he kept his voice down a he spoke, "He at least keeps the muggles from finding out about us, wizards, right?"

Hagrid scoffed, "O' course he does. If he couldn't he'd 'ave been kicked out of office already. Doesn't stop him from peltin' Dumbledore with owls every morning asking for advice though."

Suddenly he seemed to remember something, "Oh, Yeh got yer list don't ya?"

Harry nodded.

"Good, good. Don't want ter forget nothin' now do we?"

-o-o-o-

Later, they reached a smallish, dingy pub called the Leaky Cauldron, which Hagrid insisted was famous. Harry didn't know what qualified for "famous" in the Wizarding world, but the pub was indeed crowded. And soon after they entered he was the center of the crowd.

"Welcome back Mr. Potter!"

"A pleasure to meet you!"

"Dorris Crockford, Mr. Potter. I can't believe I'm meeting you at last."

"An honor Mr. Potter, an honor."

"You have no idea how grateful I am."

"Always wanted to shake your hand – I'm all a flutter"

"So glad to finally be able to thank you."

"Delighted to meet you Mr. Potter, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle"

"I've seen you before!" Harry said, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement,

"You bowed to me once in a shop."

"He remembers!" He cried out to everyone, "Did you hear that? He remembers me!"

Harry spent a good deal of time shaking hands, especially as Doris Crockford kept coming back for more, before Hagrid said, "Ah! Harry, I'd like ya to meet one of your professors at Hogwarts." Harry turned to see Hagrid ushering a nervous, pale young man towards him, "This is Professor Quirell."

Suddenly Harry felt very ill. "H-Hello P-P-Professor," he said as he shook his hand.

"W-Well, P-P-Potter. Looks like I'm not the only on with n-n-nervous st-stutter, eh" He said smiling down on him nervously

"I g-guess so," he responded weakly.

"I-I need to go get my supplies, Professor.

"Oh, d-don't let m-m-me hold you up P-Potter. I need to pick up a new book on v-v-vampires m-myself."

"T-then I guess I'll just be going n-now."

"S-See you in September P-Potter."

As they went their separate ways, Hagrid looked down at Harry concerned, "You al'righ' there Harry?"

"Y-Yeah. Just… I just got this weird feeling from him."

"Well, that's not to strange I guess. He's been a lil' funny since he came back from Albania."

"What was he doing in Albania?"

"Oh, he was gettin' some first hand experience for his subject before he started teaching. Hasn't been righ' since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject." Hagrid started searching his pockets, "Now where's me umbrella…"

"What does he teach? Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Hagrid who had been poking at the bricks with his umbrella suddenly stopped and looked at him, "Yeah actually, he does. How'd ye figure that?"

"Oh… well…" the truth was Harry wasn't sure himself. "I guess it seemed like the only thing you'd need to travel to get experience for and that could scare you that badly." Harry thought a bit more, "And he did mention needing a book on vampires."

"Heh. You've got a sharp mind Harry. With thinking like that yeh just migh' end up in Ravenclaw."

"Ravenclaw?"

"One o' the school houses. Hogwarts sorts it's students into four houses, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw, based on their individual qualities. Ravenclaw's mostly full o' people who have a sharp mind an' a thirst for knowledge."

"Oh. What about the other houses?" Harry asked as he looked around, at one point his eyes being drawn like a magnet to the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies and the broom on display.

"Well… Slytherin takes mostly people who are cunning and ambitious. Now', tha's not a bad thing, but they tend to be a little dodgy. Hufflepuff takes people who are loyal and hard workin'. Now Gryffindor wants people who are brave an' noble an' the like. Anyway, we're goin' to need to stop in Gringotts first teh get yeh yeh'r money."

"Is Gringotts a bank?"

"Yup, the only Wizarding bank in the world. Run by Goblins, and they don't fool around with things like money. You'd have to be mad to try and rob it. It's the safest place to keep anything," he paused and seemed to think, "'cept for Hogwarts."

As they walked up the white marble steps to the bank Harry read the words engraved on the silver doors.

_Enter, stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
So if you seek beneath out floors  
A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

"Like I said," Hagrid continued smiling, "yeh'd have to be mad ter try and rob it."

The approached an open tellers window and Hagrid managed to produce the key to Harry's vault after dumping many things, including some moldy dog biscuits, much to the goblin's disgust, onto the book he was working in. Hagrid then said they'd also need to be fetching something out of vault seven hundred and thirteen. After Hagrid passed the goblin a note, he nodded and called for a goblin named Griphook to take them down to their vaults.

-o-o-o-

After and exciting, and in Hagrid's case, nauseating, ride down into the bowels of the bank, they pulled to a stop in front of Harry's vault. For some reason, Harry felt sure that he wouldn't have any problems with money, but he still was staggered when he saw the piles and piles of Galleons, Scickles, and Knuts in his vault. Harry went forward and scooped up some from each pile despite still feeling a bit overwhelmed.

He probably had more money on him right now then Dudley had ever had in his whole life.

They left Harry's vault and headed for vault number seven hundred and thirteen, which Harry was surprised to find contained only one, small, grubby looking package. Hagrid took the package and they returned to the surface. Hagrid then suggested that Harry get fitted for his robes while Hagrid went off to the Leaky Cauldron for a pick-me-up.

As Harry walked into Madam Malkins, he was greeted by the witch herself, and then, after telling her what he was there for, lead to the back of the store where a pale, young man with a pointed face was being fitted for robes as well.

"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"

"Yes," said Harry

"My father is next door buying my books and my mother is looking at wands," the boy said. He had a bored drawling voice that Harry found oddly familiar.

"Aren't you supposed to pick out your own wand, though?"

"Oh, well, a family member is usually similar enough for you to get a decent enough effect from it. She'll just have the wands she got the best results from lined up and I'll pick from those. Much preferable to having to wave every wand in the store myself."

"Oh… I suppose that would speed things up."

"Quite. Afterwards I think I'll drag them over to look at racing brooms. I don't know why first years aren't aloud to have their own."

"They're not?"

"No. It's a stupid rule if you ask me," the boy looked over at Harry, "Have you got your own broom?"

"No, but I'd love to get that Nimbus 2000," something about that broom just called out to him.

The boy raised an eyebrow at Harry, "That's a top of the line broom, just released a month or so ago, very expensive. Do you think you could afford one?"

Harry thought back to his vault and answered with a smirk, "Oh, I'm pretty sure."

The boy seemed pleased with his answer, "Play Quidditch at all?"

Harry suddenly found himself in a very odd position. He had never heard of Quidditch before, yet something in him was bursting to say that yes, he did play Quidditch, and was quite good at it, thank you very much. He didn't want to be caught in a lie, but he figured he could get away with a small one…

"Yes."

"Oh?" the boy seemed to perk up a bit, his voice starting to lose it's bored tone, "What position? I play Seeker mostly."

For some reason, the position he'd named rang within him like a bell being struck. This is exactly what he needed, an opening to drag his lie out a little, "I'm a seeker as well."

The boy looked at him with an appraising expression, "Really? Well, Father says it'll be a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say I agree. Do you know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No. I was told I might be put in Ravenclaw though."

"Hmm. Well, I'm sure I'll be put into Slytherin," alarm bells started ringing in Harry's head at these words, "my whole family has been. Though, I suppose if I _had_ to be in another house, Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. I'd even take Gryffindor if it meant not being put in Hufflepuff. Could you imagine that? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"Hufflepuff doesn't sound to bad to me. I mean, it doesn't take pride in things like cunning, wit, or bravery, but being loyal isn't a bad thing."

"I suppose it isn't, but who would really want to be in a house where nobody was cunning, smart, or brave? It leaves you with a house full of stupid, unmotivated, scaredy-cats."

"I guess you have a point."

The boy smiled smugly.

"Well, that's you done, my dear," Madam Malkin said.

Harry, suddenly spotting Hagrid waiting outside with two, large, dripping ice-cream cones and hurriedly hopped off of the stool he'd been standing on.

"I guess I'll be seeing you at Hogwarts then."

"Yeah, see you."

Hagrid handed Harry one of the ice-cream cones, and then ushered him over to get quills and parchment. On their way, Harry asked, "Hagrid, what's quidditch?"

"Blimey Harry, I keep forgettin' how much yeh don't know. Quidditch is a sport, our sport, everyone follows it."

"What's a Seeker?"

"A Seeker is, possibly, the most important position in the whole game. Their job is teh catch this little golden ball with wings, when they do the game is over and their team get's a hundred and fifty points."

"Do you think I could be a good seeker?"

"Why do yeh ask? Yeh havn't even heard about teh other postions."

Harry blushed, "I sort of told the boy in Madam Malkin's I played seeker."

Hagrid burst out a deep booming laugh, "Ah, yeh just migh' Harry, yeh jus' might. Yeh sure got the right build for it."

-o-o-o-

Later, after picking up the rest of his equipment, and dragging Harry away from a book of curses(But I want to find something to use on Dudley.), they went to get Harry his wand, which drove all thoughts of Quidditch and cursing Dudley from his mind.

As they walked up to Olivanders, Harry paused and asked Hagrid, "Have they really been around since three hundred eighty three B.C.?"

"Well, probably. They wern' here o' course. But they say that the Olivander family were the firs' people teh sell wands to people. Before that, everyone 'ad to make they're own."

Inside, Harry was quickly overcome with awe. It felt as if the very dust of the room was full of some ancient magic, and to speak any louder than a whisper would profane a sacred place.

"Good afternoon."

Harry jumped as man with large shining eyes came from around one of the shelves full of boxes of wands. After an exchange of pleasantries, and a brief reminiscence of Lily and James Potter's wands, and a lament about selling Voldemort's wand, they got down to business.

Harry didn't understand what the tape measure was for, as Mr. Olivander didn't seem to be paying it a bit of attention to it, let alone why it would want to know the distance between his nostrils.

Olivander came back with a wand for him to try, and then another, and another, and yet another. Ten minutes later, Harry understood what the blond boy had meant about "waving every wand in the store."

Finally, just when Harry thought that if he had to wave another wand his arm would fall off, Olivander suddenly paused as he considered what wand to give him next. He seemed to consider a box next to the one he was about to pull out for a moment and Harry heard him mutter to himself, "Yes, why not."

Harry took the wand and swished it through the air, creating a shower of red and gold sparks through the air, causing the room to look as if fireworks had been set off.

Hagrid cheered and Olivander looked intrigued, "Curious. How very curious."

"Sorry, what's curious?"

"I remember every wand I've ever sold. Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather – just one other. It is very curious in-deed that that you should be destined for this wand, when it's brother – why, it's brother gave you that scar."

-o-o-o-

Harry left the store with Olivander's words ringing in your ears, "…great things – terrible, yes, but great."

Something about those words had struck a cord in him that rang with the clarity of silver bell.

Hagrid must have noticed Harry's distance because he started trying to cheer him up, "Alrigh' Harry, just one last thing to get. Yer birthday present."

Harry's head snapped up, "Oh, no, you don't have to get me anything."

"Ah know I don't have to," he paused to think, "I tell yeh what, I'll get yeh yer animal."

"An owl?"

"Sure. Everyone wants an owl. They're dead useful, carry your mail and everything."

A minute or so later, they entered Eeylops Owl Emporium. Harry looked around at the all the birds in their cages until his eyes suddenly locked onto a beautiful snowy white owl. Harry reached out and tugged on Hagrid sleeve, "Hagrid, I'd like that one," he said, never taking his eyes off the owl.

Hagrid followed his gaze until he spotted the bird, "Ah, she's a beaut' alrigh'." He turned to the man behind the counter and said, "We'll take tha' one."

The man nodded and went to retrieve the cage. He handed it to Harry who immediately stuck his fingers thought the bars. The bird nipped his fingers a little to hard to be called affectionate, but he was sure that would change quickly.

Hagrid was stopped in the middle of taking a breath to ask Harry if he knew what he was going to call her when Harry said, "Hedwig. Her name's Hedwig."

Hagrid looked down at him and said, "Yeh know, tha's about the fastest ah've ever seen someone name a pet."


	4. Year One: A Rat

Message from the Mako: Hi. I'd like to apologize for the long time it took to put this, for those of you that have been following since the first chapter. If this is the first time you're picking it up, Wow! I didn't think I could write chapters this fast! ;;;  
-ahem-  
This was going to be a really long chapter, but I got to the point where I said, "I could end this right here… " and after a moments deliberation I decided it would be best to end it and post it than wait until I finished the other two thirds. And just so you can get a hint of why it's going to be three parts, the true title of this chapter is _A Rat…_ but it seems punctuation isn't allowed in titles So… if you think about it, you'll see where I'm going…  
( A Rat, a --, and a --)

After leaving Diagon Alley, Hagrid had bought him a hamburger as they waited for the train. They talked a bit more about Hogwarts and Hagrid gave him his ticket for the train he'd be taking to school. Soon after returning home, he managed to convince Vernon to take him to the station, and everything seemed to be in order.

Weeks later however, he was finally starting to realize that there was something…off, about the ticket. He'd looked at it many times, each time he was left with the feeling that he was missing something. He read it again.

Sept 1

11am

Kings Cross station.  
Platform 9 ¾

…

_Wait a minute. _

_Platform nine and three-quarters? Where is that supposed to be?_

Three quarters of the way between platforms nine and ten, a more rational part of his brain said.

It was too late to back out now though, they were leaving in the morning.

_If only they hadn't locked Hedwig in her cage_ _I could send a letter to figure out what to do._

-o-o-o-

As Vernon lead him into Kings Cross he asked Harry, "So which platform are you boarding on?"

"Uhm."

_Think fast Harry!_

"Either Nine or Ten, I don't remember."

His uncle smirked, said, "Well, try not to get lost going between the two," and he left.

Harry sighed and headed towards the platforms, trying to look as inconspicuous as it was possible to with a snow owl on top of his cart. When he reached platform nine, he kept walking and ran right into platform ten. He turned and walked until he was back at platform nine. It wasn't a long trip. Somewhere between the two was platform nine and three-quarters.

The question was how to get there.

He looked at the divider between the platforms, thinking that maybe he just wasn't in the right spot. Maybe he needed to be three quarters of the way down.

That stood to reason. Walk three-quarters of the way down and… And then what?

He sighed in frustration and started walking. Once he was three-quarters of the way down, he started, casually, pushing against the wall, hoping to find some gap, some _anything_. But he didn't find a thing except for a bit of gum that got stuck to his hand.

As he picked it off he thought that maybe he was just at the wrong third-quarter. That is was three-quarters down from the _other_ side of the platform. He tried that and found nothing. He thought that he might have had it right the first time and that it was magically stuffed between the two platforms.

That still didn't help him get there.

_Maybe I'm supposed to use my wand. Tap something. Tap things in the right order. Like… the ticket booth. Maybe if I tap it it'll jump out of the way…_

He shook his head. It couldn't be something like that. Something like that would attract to much attention… wouldn't it?

_Ugh_

It was probably something so subtle that he was completely overlooking it. It _had_ to be, it was the best way to keep it hidden, but what exactly was it that he was a suppose-

"--packed with muggles, of course--"

_Bingo_.

He turned and found a plump woman leading four boys and a girl, all with flaming read hair, towards the platform. The boys each pushing a cart ahead of them, and the oldest had an owl.

He hurried to catch up with them, and caught the woman looking at her daughter through the corner of her eye, "Now, what's the platform number?" she said with a small smile.

"Nine and three-quarters!" the girl piped up, "Mom, can't I go…"

"You're not old enough Ginny-"

Harry blinked.

"-Percy you go first."

The eldest went forward with his owl and Harry watched to try and see what you needed to do, but a crowd of passengers passed between them and Percy was gone.

"Fred, you next."

"I'm not Fred, I'm George," the boy said with indignation. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you _tell_ I'm George?"

"Sorry, George, Dear."

"Only joking, I am Fred," and he hurried off towards the divider, and was gone.

… _well at least I was right about the divider_

Then George moved forward and disappeared. But how had he done it?

"Excuse me," He said as he approached the group, briefly meeting eyes with the girl.

"Hello, dear. First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too." She said pointing towards her youngest son.

"Yes, but, the thing is, I don't-"

"Know how to get onto the platform?"

"Ah," he said, briefly looking at the girl again, "yeah."

"Not to worry. All you do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop or be scared or you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."

"Right. Thank you."

He turned and faced the barrier. It looked very solid and the prospect of running right into it didn't interest him at all, however, once he started towards it, all fear and hesitation went away. It was like he'd been doing this for years. He broke through the barrier and found himself on a busy platform next to a scarlet steam engine labeled as the Hogwarts Express.

He looked around the platform as he headed for the train.

_Ginny, Ron, Fred, George, and Percy. Why do those names sound so familiar? I swear I felt like I knew them. Especially Ron and Ginny…_

He found a compartment and put Hedwig in first before attempting to shove his trunk in, with little to no success. He'd managed to move it a foot(maybe), almost break his toes twice, and was panting for breath before someone came to his rescue, "Want a hand?"

It was one of the twins from before, "Yes, please."

"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"

With the twins help, Harry finally got his trunk tucked away in the compartment.

Harry brushed his sweaty hair out of his eyes, "Thanks"

"What's that?"

Harry looked up and saw one of the twins pointing at his forehead, "My scar?"

"Blimey," Said the other twin, "Are you--?"

"Am I what?"

"_Harry Potter_," they chorused.

"Oh, him. I mean, yes, I am."

The twins gawked at him and Harry felt his blush start burning his cheeks.

Fortunately, after only a moment he heard their mother call them and the two hurried out.

Harry watched them from the compartment, as their mother forced Ron into submission before rubbing at something on his nose with a handkerchief. The twins teased him about it for a moment before making a great show of recalling how they remembered Percy mention something about him being a Prefect once, or twice, a minute, all summer.

Harry laughed as they then got a dressing down for their behavior and a warning to behave and not blow up a toilet or something, and then thanked their mum for the great idea. Then he pulled away from the window as they told their mother how "that black-haired boy that was near us at the station" was Harry Potter. He moved back to the window then as he heard the girl's voice, "Oh, mom, can I go on the train and see him-"

Harry had no idea why, but suddenly he was up and moving towards the door. He got to the platform just as their Mother said how she had wondered why he was alone.

"Uh, hello," Harry said.

The group turned to see him as he embarrassedly walked up to them, "I, uh, I didn't get a chance to thank you for helping me get to the platform."

"Oh, it was nothing dear, you don't have to thank me."

"No really, if it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't have made it," he saw Ginny looking at him and suddenly it seemed as if the two of them were trying to see who could blush the most.

A whistle sounded, "Oh, you'd all best hurry up, the train is about to leave."

The four boys, plus Harry, nodded and got back on the train.

Harry just got back to his compartment as the train started to move. He looked out the window and saw Ginny running along with the train, half laughing, half crying. Harry waved to her and she stopped and waved as the train speed off.

Not long, perhaps a minute later, the door to the compartment opened and Ron poked his head in, "Is anyone sitting there?" he said, pointing to the seat opposite Harry.

"No, you're welcome to it."

Harry noticed that Ron still had a black mark on his nose, and Ron peek at him then turn his head away pretending he hadn't looked.

The twins came in then, "Hey Ron. Listen, we're going down to the middle of the train – Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Right" mumbled Ron.

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."

"Bye," said Harry and Ron, as the twins slid the door shut.

There was a brief silence before Ron blurted out, "So you're really Harry Potter?"

"Yes," And when he saw Ron start to open his mouth again he added, "Yes, I do have a scar," he pushed his bangs to the side, "and no, I don't know what he looked like. The only thing I can remember is a lot of green light."

The talked briefly about coming to school from a wizarding family and coming from a muggle one, and how it didn't really make a difference academically, and about how overshadowing it is to have had five brothers come before you.

"I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat," at which point he produced a fat gray rat from his robes, and Harry recoiled violently with a hiss.

Ron seemed shocked, "Are you scared of rats?"

"I—I didn't think I was but… " Harry shrugged, "So how come you have all hand-me-downs?"

Ron started to go pink and Harry caught on quickly. He explained about how he'd always had to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting any proper sort of birthday present and how he hadn't even known about his parents or Voldemort until Hagrid had shown up to deliver his letter. It was at that point that he admitted his fear that he was going to be bottom of his class because of that, but Ron went on to tell him about how loads of muggleborn's pick it up fast enough so there was no reason he wouldn't be any good.

After that, they'd spent awhile just watching the scenery before the food cart came by and Harry, though temporarily disappointed to find no Mars Bars, bought a bit of everything. He got his next real shock from the wizarding world in the form of a runaway picture of Albus Dumbledore that he got from a chocolate frog card, and then experienced the mixed blessings and curses of Berttie Bots Every Flavor Beans.

Earlier, they had been interrupted by a boy searching frantically for his toad, and now, as Ron was going to attempt a spell to make his rat turn yellow and be at least a _little_ more interesting, they were interrupted again by a girl with large front teeth, bushy hair, and a bossy sort of voice. However, her tone somehow put Harry at ease, as if this was the way things were supposed to be.

Needless to say, the spell Ron had gotten from Fred and George turned out to be a bust. After which the girl went on a long spiel about how she had memorized all her textbooks already, and after they had gotten around to introducing themselves, went on another tangent about how Harry was in several different books. She left shortly after, and they ended up talking about Ron's older brother as Harry was curious about what exactly a wizard did after leaving school, at which point Ron remembered something, "Did you hear about Gringotts?"

For some reason that he couldn't place, Harry's stomach dropped into his shoes, "What happened?"

"Someone tried to rob a high security vault."

"That didn't catch him did they…"

Ron looked at him strangely, "No, they didn't, how did you--Harry, are you okay? You're looking kind of pale."

And as quickly as it came, the feeling passed, "Yeah, I'm okay, sorry, I—I don't know what came over me."

"You're sure you're going to be okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine."

Ron decided at that point that they should move onto a lighter subject, and started talking about Quidditch. Harry was quite enthusiastic, which pleased Ron to no end, despite not knowing much more than the basic rules.

Ron was just building up a good head of steam when the door opened, and for once it wasn't someone looking for a toad. Flanked by two brutish looking boys who had the air of bodyguards around them, the boy Harry had talked to in Madam Malkin's walked in.

"Oh, hello," Harry said to the boy.

The boy nodded to him, "You're Harry Potter, aren't you? I've heard all up and down the train that he was in here."

"Yes, I am."

"My name's Malfoy—"

Harry suddenly cocked his head to the side and looked at him quizzically, the vibe he'd gotten from him at the shop, was stronger, like the one he got from the Weasly's only tinted with wariness, "Draco Malfoy?"

Draco's face lit up, "Ah, I see you know who I am."

Harry nodded, "I must have heard someone mention you, I can't remember where though."

"Well, that's no surprise, we are a very illustrious family."

Ron, meanwhile, was staring and Draco and Harry goggle eyed.

"I see."

Draco nodded, "Yes, there are certain families you shouldn't get mixed up with, and one's that are worth getting to know," he stuck out his hand to shake Harry's, "I can help you there."

Harry looked at his hand for a moment, before taking his hand and shaking it, "Thank you for the offer, though I'm sure I'll be able to pick them out myself."

Draco looked like he was both pleased and irritated, but he nodded and said, "I'll see you at the welcoming feast then," and left.

"They just completely ignored me," Ron said, looking highly offended and starting to go red.

"Don't worry about it Ron, I don't think anything good would have come out of it if he had."

Hermione chose that moment to reappear, advising them that it would be a good idea to change into their robes. Harry thanked her, and then suddenly decided to offer her a Chocolate Frog. She looked slightly taken aback, but took it and thanked him before heading off.

Ron looked at him, "What was that for?"

Harry shrugged, "I don't know. Just seemed like the thing to do at the time."

Ron shook his head, "So you've met Malfoy before?"

"Yeah, in Diagon Alley, at Madam Malkin's. We were being fitted at the same time and we ended up talking a bit."

Ron looked uncertain, "I've heard about the Malfoys. Dad says they were some of you-know-whose biggest supporters, and after he disappeared, they said they were bewitched. Dad doesn't believe him, says they didn't need a reason to go to the dark side."

"Well, you know what they say don't you?" Harry smirked, "'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer'"

I disclaim ownership of anything you recognised


	5. Year One: A Hat

Message from the Mako: If this chapter suddenly turned into a man, I would kick it in the nuts. Over and over. I have never had this much trouble writting something, and frankly I'm just glad it's over, and I'm now looking forward to the point where my original content outweighs the past possibly even more than you are. I'm going to start the next chapter today, and if all goes well, should have it up ina week. Pray. Pray hard. I'm going to need all the help I can get.

* * *

They finished changing just before it was announced that they would be arriving in five minutes and that they should leave their luggage on the train, adding that it would be brought up separately. The students crammed their way out of the train and onto a dark platform. Not long afterward, Harry heard Hagrid calling out for the first yeas to follow him, holding a lantern high above everyone's head, once calling out a greeting that Harry returned with a wave.

They were lead off away from the other students and the carriages, pulled by the strangest looking creatures Harry had ever seen. They looked like a starved combination of a horse and a dragon.

They headed down a very steep and winding path where almost all light was blocked out by, Harry figured, very thick trees. Slipping and sliding, they headed down the embankment, Neville sniffing once or twice. And when they finally reached the bottom, they all broke out into sounds of awe as the myriad of lights that were Hogwarts blinked at them from across the lake.

.oOo.

The journey across the lake was uneventful, though Harry felt strangely unimpressed by the sight(Well, at least not as impressed as he thought he would be.), and it wasn't long before they landed at what was more of a cave than a dock. As they all clambered out of the boats and onto the rock, a sudden movement caught his attention, and it also seemed to have caught Hagrid's attention as well. They both moved towards the boat to find a very disappointed toad sitting in the boat.

"Oh, this must be Neville's, he was looking for his toad the entire trip here."

"Righ', well, best get it to im then."

Harry scooped up the toad and hurried to catch up to the group moving up a long stone staircase, "Oy! Neville! I found your toad!"

.oOo.

Shortly after they reached the top of the stairs, they found themselves being ushered into waiting in a small chamber off to the side of the Great Hall. He listened to the murmurs of students discussing the sorting, hearing everything from taking a group of four and sending each one to a table at random to wrestling with a troll.

Harry had heard Hagrid mention a hat, so he was sure it was closer to the first one.

Suddenly someone, and then some more someones, started screaming. Harry whipped around to see several pearly white, shimmering, and translucent forms passing through one wall and out through the next. It wasn't until later that he realized that the ghosts hadn't shocked him in the least. He attributed it to it being an old magic castle; ghosts had to come with the territory, right?

.oOo.

As they stood in front of the great hall, listening to the explanation of how the sorting would work, Ron cursed his brothers for feeding him the rubbish about trolls.

The sorting began with Abbot, Hanna, who went to Hufflepuff, then moved down the line, sending Granger, Hermione and Longbottom, Neville to Gryffindor. When Draco sat down to be sorted, the hat barely made contact with his head when it placed him in, proving his prediction true, Slytherin. Then Moon, Nott, Parkinson, Patil, Patil, Perks, and finally, Potter.

When Harry sat on the stool and the hat was placed on his head, he heard a small voice, "Hmm…how strange….this certainly doesn't make the matter of placing you any easier…"

"What's strange?"

"Oh, never mind that, just give me a moment, You've got a very keen mind, and a thirst to prove your self, I see you're also frighteningly loyal. My first instinct would be to put you in Slytherin, but I think you might actually be better suited for-"

"Gryffindor?"

"Actually, considering how all the elements of each House seem to be in almost perfect balance within you, I was going to say Hufflepuff. However, I realize your loyalty also extends to doing whatever it takes to help your friends, which would make you a better candidate for GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table erupted in applause as he headed towards them, the Weasley twins capering about chanting, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

Soon after, Ron joined the Gryffindor table and everything finally seemed to fit into place as he settled in to enjoy the feast.

And enjoy it he did. The discussions about who had come from muggle families, or where born into a magical family, listening to Sir Nicholas describe why he was called "nearly-headless" and Hermione was rambling on about what classes she was looking forward to and why. It was during her monologue on transfiguration classes, however, that it happened.

He was glancing up the staff table, watching the teachers discussing things and just satisfying general curiosity, when he met eyes with someone who was talking with Professor Quirrell. The man looked over Quirrell's shoulder and directly at him, and pain suddenly seared through his scar.

He hissed as he brought his hand to his scar.

"Are you alright?" Percy asked.

"Ah, yeah. Headache."

The pain soon faded and Dumbledore stood up to deliver the standard start of term announcements, with one addition; "…the third floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

A few people laughed, but Harry was not one of them. For some reason, he felt sure that Dumbledore was quite serious.

.oOo.

After the announcements they had sung the school song, the Weasley twins dragging it on well past everyone else to the tune of a funeral march, and then dismissed to the dormitories. With only an encounter with the Bloody Baron to make it notable, Harry has able to feel just how tired he actually was, and the trek up to the tower only made him more exhausted. When they finally reached their dorms Harry gratefully flopped into bed as Ron tried to evict Scabbers from his bed for chewing the sheets. He was about to ask Ron if he'd tried the treacle tart, but fell asleep almost instantly.

He dreamed that Professor Quirrell was trying to make him wear his turban, "C-come on H-harry, we have so m-much in c-c-common. It's only r-right that I p-pass it on to you."

Harry refused, but Quirrell continued to press him.

"Just put the turban on, Potter," Snape told him.

He still refused.

"Put it on."

He refused again and in an exasperated tone told Draco to go put the turban on, "With pleasure!" he'd said.

Grinning Draco took the turban from Guirrell and placed it on his head, looking triumphant.

Suddenly, his look of triumph turned to one of horror, "I don't think this was such a good idea."

Then, slowly, he seemed to develop a fit of the giggles, which eventually turned into full high-pitched laughter.

Snape looked on aghast, "What have I done?"

Harry turned back to Draco only to see a pair of gleaming pair of red eyes and a flash of green light.


	6. Year One: and a Bat

Whispers followed him wherever he went the next day from the moment he set foot out of his dormitory. He didn't know why it all bothered him so much, but it did. The best he could do was to just keep his head down and keep moving.

Ron didn't say anything about it, but he was amazed by how easily Harry seemed to be able to find where they were going. What was stranger was that, for some reason, whenever Harry actually seemed to be paying attention to where he was going, he was just as lost as any other first year. Ron decided that the best and fastest way to get anywhere was to start a conversation with Harry and just follow along, quickly ending up at their class with a startled, "Oh, we're here." from his friend.

The Weasley twins were awed by his apparent skill at finding secret passages.

Harry, Ron, Fred and George had been walking along a corridor, late for class, when the caretakers cat appeared at the next turn in the hall. The three Weasley's were about to turn and go back down the hall when Harry had grabbed Ron by the elbow and ducked behind a tapestry and down a stairwell.

The classes were interesting, though Ron didn't understand why Harry seemed to think the classes were so dull. If anything, Harry saying that the classes seemed rather obvious only confused him more. Hermione, however, seemed to feel she found a rival in Harry when Professor McGonagall compared their work at transfiguring a matchstick into a needle.

It was Friday of their first week when Harry woke with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Ron didn't really notice his friends mood, though, as he was too happy with finding his way to the great hall without Harry's help and not getting lost once.

As Harry poured sugar on his porridge, he heard Ron make a noise of disgust, "What is it?"

"We've got double potions with the Slytherins. Snape's head of Slytherin, they say he favors them."

It was just about then that the mail came, and for the first time he saw Hedwig come swooping in with a letter for him. It was an invitation from Hagrid to come visit during their afternoon break and talk about his first week at school. Harry quickly scribbled out a reply, saying that he'd love to come. It was good, he felt, to have tea with Hagrid to look forward too and help him through what was sure to be a disastrous day of potions.

Snape started the classes like all of his other teachers; by calling roll, and like Professor Flitwick, he also paused at Harry's name, "Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter, our new – _celebrity._"

When he finished calling the roll, Snape stood to address the class, "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he started softly, "As there is little foolish wand waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with it's shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the senses. … I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Silence.

"Potter!" said Snap suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

He looked at Ron, "Uhm…" as Hermione's hand shot up, "I...uhm… I think it's a sleeping potion isn't it?"

Hermione's hand dropped down to the desktop.

Snape raised an eyebrow.

Ron gaped at him.

"Yes, it is Mr. Potter, it's called Draught of Living Death. Now, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"Uh.." Ron looked stumped again, Hermione was trying to touch the ceiling, and neither of them was any help, "Uhm… in the supply closet?"

Snapes eyes narrowed dangerously.

_Right, wrong answer._

"Well…it's a stone…and they come from…something's stomach…a…uhm…. I can't remember."

"A goat, Potter, you find a bezoar in the stomach of a goat. Do you know what a bezoar is used for?"

"It'll save you from most poisons."

Ron blinked again, Snape did as well; Hermione just looked disappointed.

Snape looked at him appraisingly, "What is the difference between wolfsbane and monkshood?"

Hermione's hand shot up so fast Harry thought she might dislocate her shoulder, but this time, he was sure of the answer, "Nothing, Sir, it's the same plant."

"Hmm. It seems at least two people bothered to open a book over the summer… Why have none of you written any of that down?" he snapped

There was a near frantic scrambling for quills and parchment, as the class scribbled madly the answers to the questions he had asked, Snape moved through the desks, pausing only at Harry's desk to say, "One point to Gryffindor."

The rest of the class went without incident, with the exception of one near disaster when Harry managed to stop Neville before he added the porcupine quills without taking the cauldron off the fire first.

"Idiot boy!" Snape snarled, "You could have seriously injured everyone in this class if Potter hadn't stopped you."

He paused for a moment, seeming to think, his eye shifting from Neville to Harry, then seemed to come to a decision that didn't please him, "No points will be taken for your error Longbottom, and no points will be given for Potter saving you from your own stupidity," and then he swept off and asked the class to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs.

Message from the Mako

Okay, short-ish chapter, but at least it's up and you can read and comment on it. I'm not going to bother trying to promise the next chapter within a week, instead I'll go for a more modest estimate of inside a month. Hope you enjoyed. I had fun writing the potions class, but the beginning of this chapter was funking mystery to me. I hope I pulled it off to your satisfaction.

…

I'm not going to write another fanfic like this one again.

Ever.

Makokam out.


	7. Year One: First Flight

_**Mako's Message:** Oh my god it's a Christmas Miracle!_

_That said, thank you for clicking on this story, whether you found it through browsing, and Author Alert, or a many year old Story Alert. I've written over 110 chapters for various stories over the last year, so I feel confident that I will be able to continue this story at last._ _I apologize for any changes in tone or style from the previous chapters__ as a lot of time _has_ passed and my style has changed, as writing styles tend to do__. I hope if you enjoyed it before and are coming back to it, that you will still enjoy the story. I also apologize for the brevity of this chapter__. It ends on what I felt was a natural stopping point, even though it's not the cliffhanger it pretends to be, and I liked the title "First Flight" too much to change it when I realized how little flying would take up the chapter if I took it all the way through the meeting with Fluffy as I'd originally intended. If you're familiar with my more recent work you'll also know that I just tend to write short chapters nowadays._

_And with that out of the way, enjoy the story_!

* * *

-Year One Ch7, First Flight-

"'The supply closet'?" Fred asked

"Is that really what you said?" George asked?

Harry nodded his head.

"That's _brilliant_!" the two chorused.

"I know." Ron said, "Snape was furious and you could tell he was about to take points for it, but then Harry gave him a real answer. He should have gotten more than one point for answering all those questions though."

"Yeah, well," George started.

"Snape's a git." Fred finished.

Harry might have enjoyed the conversation going on around him, but his mind was otherwise occupied. He couldn't stop thinking about the break in at Gringotts. It'd happened the day he and Hagrid had been there. They day they had emptied a vault. And the vault that had been broken into was emptied that day.

He _knew_ it was the same vault. That the thief had been after whatever they'd removed. And he knew this was desperately important. He just couldn't figure out _why_ it was so important let alone figure out why he was so sure of it's importance.

.oOo.

Fortunately, there were other things to take his mind off of it. Things like Draco Malfoy.

Draco Malfoy was a boy who actually managed to make Harry miss Dudley, of all people. And Harry had never considered himself a violent person, until he met Draco. Yet, despite the urges he'd get to curse his face off whenever he saw him, Harry couldn't shake the feeling that he should at least _try_ to be civil to the boy if nothing else.

Fortunately, he only had one class with him; Potions, though Harry would have preferred having two classes with Draco over having to put up with Draco and Snape _at the same time._

He got half of his wish though one day when they saw a notice had been pinned up saying that flying lessons would begin that Thursday, and that they'd be learning with the Slytherins. But while the rest of the first year Gryffindors groaned at this, Harry was focused on only one thing; he was going to get to fly.

.oOo.

On Thursday morning his class was a bundle of nerves. Mostly due to Hermione and Neville's nervousness seemingly being contagious. Though he felt Neville was completely justified since all Harry had to do was look at him and know that something bad was going to happen to him today. Of course, something bad usually happened to him anyway.

Almost as an example of that, Neville received a package that morning from his grandmother. A large glass marble that seemed to be filled with smoke that turned red almost as soon as Neville picked it up, telling him that he'd forgotten something. Unfortunately he couldn't remember what it was he'd forgotten.

Malfoy happened to be walking by the table just then, and snatched the Rememberall up. Harry and Ron jumped to their feet, and while Harry wanted desperately to be given a reason to punch Draco in his smug, ferrety face, he couldn't shake the feeling that this needed to be handled diplomatically, "Give it back Draco," he grated out through clenched teeth, "Think about how your representing the...highly respectable and noble house of Malfoy."

Malfoy hesitated for a second before dropping it disdainfully into Neville's lap, "I'm sure you'll make good use of this, until you forget where you put it" and he walked off laughing while Neville turned the same color as the Rememberall.

McGonagall walked up then, smiling, "Very well handled Mr. Potter. Fi- no, TEN points to Gryffindor."

"Nice going Potter!" Seamus said as he sat back back. He noticed Hermione smiling at him, seemingly impressed. Ron however, was starring at him like he'd just grown a second head, "'the _highly respectable _house of MALFOY'? Are you mad?"

Harry shrugged, "I won us points."

Ron looked like he'd have rather lost points than say anything even remotely complimentary about the Malfoys.

.oOo.

That afternoon the first year Gryiffindors left the castle and headed down to a large flat area of the rolling Hogwarts grounds where they would be taking their flying lessons. Unfortunately the Slytherins, were already there, but their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived shortly after them so there was no time for any antagonism. Though, Harry felt like Draco could have started throwing hexes and he wouldn't have cared, so long as he got to fly.

Madam Hooch instructed them all to stand next to a broom, hold their hand over it, and say, "Up."

Everyone did as instructed, though when Harry cried, "Up!" the broom leapt into his hand with such eagerness that he was nearly lifted off his feet and into the air, which Harry didn't mind at all. On the other end of the spectrum however, where Hermione and Neville, whose brooms just sort of rolled over or didn't so much as twitch, respectively. Everyone else was somewhere in between.

Eventually everyone had gotten their brooms off the ground, and Madam Hooch went around instructing them on how to properly grip the broom(Harry and Ron exchanged wide grins when Malfoy was told he'd been doing it wrong for years), and how to sit on it without sliding off.

Harry hoped Neville was paying attention, but a glance in his direction made him sigh; Neville looked so scared he doubted he'd heard anything that'd been said.

Finally, when Madam Hooch was satisfied with how everyone was sitting on their brooms she said, "Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle – three – two -"

And Neville launched himself into the air before the whistle had even touched Madam Nooch's lips.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted but Neville continued to rise with no signs of stopping. Without even realizing it, Harry was airborne and quickly catching up to Neville. "Potter! What do you think you're doing?" she yelled.

Harry came up beside Neville and reached out for him, "Give me your hand."

But Neville just looked back at Harry white faced with fear and unable to move.

"Neville! Your hand!"

"Listen to him!" Madam Hooch called out.

Neville looked down at the sound of her voice and went even paler. Neville started to slide off the broom and Harry moved in to grab him but wasn't fast enough, feeling Neville's robes slip through his fingers.

Harry watched resignedly as Neville hit the ground and barely even winced at the sound of bone breaking. He sighed. The whole thing suddenly seemed as if it'd been inevitable, and he was somehow sure that Neville was fine. Or at least that he would be.

Harry glided down with Neville's broom in hand as the students and Madam Hooch clustered around him. "Come on, boy – it's all right, up you get."

She turned to the rest of the class, "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch'. Come on dear," and she put her arm around Neville as he hobbled off.

As soon as they were out of earshot Draco burst into laughter, "Did you see his face. The great lump?"

The other Slytherins joined in.

"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.

"Ooh, stcking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, "Never thought _you'd_like fat little cry-babies, Parvati."

"Look!" Draco suddenly shouted, and he and Harry both bolted to the spot where Neville had fallen. Draco reached it first and snatched up the glittering Rememberall, smiling smugly at Harry, "You want this, eh, Potter?"

"Just give that here."

"I don't think so. But since you think you're such a great flier, "He leapt on to a broom, "You can just come and get it!"

"No!" Hermione yelled, but Harry was already in the air and flying after Draco.

Draco lead him a short chase across the lawn; swerving, diving, climbing, and growing increasingly annoyed at Harry's ability to stay right on top of him no matter what he did.

Draco suddenly pulled up short and Harry overshot him by a small margin before turning around to face him. "What's the matter Draco? Giving up already?" he said as he prepared to rush in and snatch the Rememberall back.

Draco sneered, though much of the cockiness had left him, "No, just thought it time for a new game. Catch!" and he threw the Rememberall as far as he could before diving back to the ground.

Harry watched it soar through the air, then, when it'd reached it's highest point and started to fall to the ground, he rocketed forward. His heart raced and his spirits soared as the wind whipped through his hair. The ball gained speed, but Harry watched it carefully, and flew unerringly. Their paths intersected a mere foot from the ground as he whirled his broom around and reached out to snatch it from the air.

His eyes wide with excitement, he was about to thrust the fist clutching the Rememberall into the air, victorious, then-

"HARRY POTTER!"

_Crap._


	8. Year One: Dual Deception

**_Mako's Message_: **_Kay, so wasn't within a month, but it's up in Jan__uary and the last chapter was up in December, and all things considered I'm gonna call that a win. This isn't as long as I would've liked, but hey, it's here. I'll try to work up to longer chapters as I go. Kinda got into a habit of it with my other story._

_Also, this chapter marks the first (semi)significant diversion from the book. Whoo! yeah, it's not much but... -shrug- Be sure to review and tell me what you think worked and what didn't._

_Enjoy!_

_Please?_

* * *

"_Seeker? _But first years _never_– you must be the youngest player in-"

"-a century. Yes." Harry finished for Ron between bites.

Ron continued to gape wordlessly as Harry continued to eat, until Fred and George came by. They quietly offered their congratulations and shared their excitement at the prospect of winning the Quidditch cup, which they hadn't done since their brother Charlie left the school, before leaving to go see a passage their friend, Lee Jordan, had found which was probably old news.

As the twins left, Harry noticed Malfoy heading his way and rolled his eyes as he wondered if this was what _every_meal was going to be like.

"Having a last meal, Potter?" Malfoy asked, sitting on the table beside him and stealing an apple off of Hermione's plate, "When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"

"June, I suspect," Harry answered without concern as he reached for another roll, "Why?"

Malfoy's head snapped towards him, "You're not expelled?"

"No. Why? Are you?" He took Malfoy's shock as an opportunity to steal the apple back from him and pass it to Hermione, who began vigorously polishing it on a napkin.

Malfoy's eyes flashed with anger, "You watch how you talk to me Potter."

"Or what?" Harry said, still not looking at him, "You'll hide behind Crabbe and Goyle?"

"I'll take you on any time on my own. Tonight if you want. A wizards duel, wands only; no contact."

Suddenly, an idea stuck Harry and he grinned as he looked up at him, "I accept." Then he turned to Ron, "Be my second?"

Ron blinked at the suddenness of it before bursting out, "Of course!"

Harry turned back to Malfoy, "What about you? Who's yours?"

Malfoy turned and looked at Crabbe and Goyle for a moment, sizing them up. "Crabbe," he decided. "Midnight alright for you? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."

After they left Ron looked at him, "You sure you're up for this?"

Harry shrugged, "What's the worst he could to do? Shoot sparks in my face?"

"So when'd you learn about dueling anyway? How'd you know about seconds?"

Harry paused for a moment as he thought about that, then he shrugged and said, "Dunno. Don't all duels have seconds though?"

Ron shrugged, "Maybe. Don't know anything about Muggle dueling."

"Excuse me," Hermione interjected, "I couldn't help over hearing what you and Malfoy were saying ("I bet you could," Ron muttered) and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of all the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

"It'll be fine Hermione, trust me."

.oOo.

That night, Harry lay in bed staring at the canopy of his bed, wondering why he wanted to do this. This was... so much worse than riding a broom when he wasn't supposed to, or even going off to duel another student. Why did he keep thinking that he should be trying to make nice with Malfoy when every time he saw him he wanted to unleash every curse he knew on him? Why was he the only first year who hadn't gotten hopelessly lost? Was he going to spend his whole time here getting vague impressions and feelings?

Finally Ron shook him out of his musings, "It's half-past eleven. We should get going."

Harry nodded mutely before getting up and putting on his black robes. He paused when he saw that Ron was about to head out in his bathrobe. They looked at each other for a moment before Ron said, "Right," and changed into his robes as well.

They headed down into the common room, which was dimly lit by the dying embers in the fireplace, casting heavy, flickering, shadows throughout. Just as they reached the portrait hole a voice came from the shadows, "I can't believe you're doing this Harry."

"Honestly, neither can I."

"So why are you doing it then?" Hermione demanded, getting out of her chair and stepping into the light wearing a pink fluffy bathrobe.

Harry shrugged, "I've got a good feeling about this."

Hermione fumed, "That is NOT a good reason!" she said and stomped her foot.

"Well we're going anyway," he said and pushed the portrait open, "So if you want to talk us out of it you'd better come along."

"Are you mental?" Ron exclaimed, "Did you just _invite_her to follow us around nagging at us?"

"Kinda"

"There is something wrong with you mate," he said as the climbed out into the hallway.

Sure enough, Hermione followed after them, hissing like an angry goose, "There's something wrong with BOTH of you! Don't you care about anything but yourselves? _I_ don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and if you get caught, and you _will_, you're going to lose us all the points I got from McGonagall for knowing about switching spells!"

Harry turned and smiled, "Actually, if we get caught you'll be losing the points yourself."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're out of bed after hours too," he said and pointed behind them.

Hermione turned and let a little gasp of shock: the Fat Lady was gone; she was locked out of the tower. "What am I going to do?"

Ron started to speak, but Harry spoke over him, "You could help Neville."

Both Ron and Hermione turned to him and spoke at once, "What?"

Harry pointed to a corner, where Neville was curled up and sleeping. Hermione went over and shook him, "Neville, wake up."

Neville jerked awake and seemed panicked at first then relieved when he saw who it was, "Oh thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the password to get into bed."

"Keep your voice down Neville. The password's Pig Snout but it won't do you any good now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."

"Feeling alright, Neville?" Neville nodded, "Great. Well, here you both go," he said looking at Hermione, "You couldn't sleep so you came down to the common room to read and then you thought you heard someone outside calling for help, so you went out to look and before you realized she was gone you let the portrait shut so you're both stuck out here," He said smiling at them. Then he clapped his hands and turned to Ron, "Well, now that that's all settled let's get going."

"Bye!" Ron said with a grin and hurried along after Harry.

"Oh no you don't. You don't get off that easily. You both could still get caught and get us all in trouble. I'm coming with you." Harry and Ron looked at her questioningly. She said, exasperated, "If you get caught I can tell them I was trying to get you to go back and maybe I'll get enough points for that to balance out what you lose."

"You're mental Hermione. No one would buy that."

"If she's going I'm going too!" Neville said scrambling over, "I'm not staying out here alone anymore, the Bloody Barron came by twice already."

Harry shrugged, "Suit yourself"

"What?" Ron choked, "They're going to get us caught!"

Harry waved it off, "We're not going to get caught."

"You better hope not mate, cause if we do I'm not going to rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirell was telling it about and used it on you. ALL of you."

A few corridors later Hermione's curiosity finally got the better of her, "So, Harry, why, exactly, are you so sure we're not going to get caught?"

Harry smirked, "Because Malfoy is _trying_ to get us caught."

The other three stopped in their tracks, "That-"

"-makes-"

"-no sense."

Ron hurried to catch up with him, "How is Malfoy trying to get us caught going to stop us from getting caught?"

"Because he's expecting us to go to the trophy room."

Ron stopped up short again, "Uh..."

Hermione finished for him, "But, aren't you GOING to the trophy room? For your duel?"

"No, actually." he said, "As soon as he suggested it I knew he was going to try and get us in trouble for it, probably tipped Filch or Snape off as soon as he left the table, so whoever he told will be watching for us at the Trophy Room-"

"Which we're not going too..."

"Right."

"So if we're not going to the Trophy Room, where _are_we going?"

"Here," Harry said, stopping.

The other three looked around, confused. It was Hermione that figured out where they were first.

"Harry!" she gasped, "This is the third floor corridor! _The FORBIDDEN corridor!_"

"Yes, and with Filch off looking for us elsewhere, we'll be free to take a look."

"Harry! We can't go in there!"

"For once I agree with her, we should just go back."

Harry waved them both off, "It'll be fine, I'm just going to take a quick look."

"Bu-but Dumbldore said anyone who went in there would d-die a horrible and painful death.

"You can all wait here then if you want, I'll only be a minute," and with that he slipped into the third floor corridor on the left side, leaving Hermione, Ron, and Neville standing nervously on the landing.

For no particular reason, Harry began to whistle.

Before he was halfway down the corridor though, running footsteps announced the arrival of his friends, "I thought you were going to stay back there."

"Well, I felt kind of stupid just standing there, when you're off exploring."

"And I'm not going to let you get yourself killed. We'll be enough trouble if we get caught as it is."

"I wasn't going to stand there by myself."

Harry almost laughed. For some reason, their answers seemed so expected. He reached the door, still whistling, raised a finger to his lips, pointed his wand at the door, said "Alohamora" cracked the door open and stuck his head inside. His whistle immediately faltered and died.

Fluffy blinked slowly at him as his eyes took in the room, then just as he pulled his head back fluffy began to growl.

"Well," he said, in a slightly hysterical tone, "Everything is as it should be here."

The other three stared in horror as the deep growling could be heard reverberating through the door.

"Wha-what was in there?" Ron asked.

"A..ah...a giant, three headed dog guarding a trap door."

"You can't be serious." Ron said and pushed past Harry to open the door and peer inside.

A single, deafening, bark tore through the air before Ron slammed the door shut and leaned hard into it to keep it that way, "What sort of lunatic puts something like that in a SCHOOL!" he cried, his face completely pale.

"Well, we were warned not to go down this corridor, let alone go in that room."

"So why did you want to!"

"I.." Harry stopped. Why had he wanted to come here? He knew that as soon as Malfoy suggested the duel he'd thought that it would be the perfect chance to go check the corridor and make sure the dog was there- wait. Had he known the dog was going to be there? He felt like he did...or at least that he expected it. He hadn't felt nearly as shocked or scared as Ron had, but then, the dog hadn't barked at _him_. "I just wanted to check it." he finally, and lamely, responded.

"Can we go back to the dorm now?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, it must be nearly midnight. Filch will figure out we're not coming soon."

And with that the four of them hurried back to Gryffindor tower.

Fortunately the Fat Lady had returned to her portrait by the time they got there, "And where have _you_ been?"

"Oh, just out for a bit of night ait."

"And why are you the only one dressed for bed young lady?"

"Pig Snout."

The Fat Lady sighed and swung open to admit them.

As soon as they stepped inside Hermione rounded on Harry, "I hope you've learned a lesson from all this and won't be so foolish as to go out like that again. You're lucky that thing didn't bite your head off! And worse, you could have gotten expelled!"

After the three boys watched Hermione storm up to her room, Ron turned and grinned at Harry, "That was fun and all, but next time, warn a guy about something like that."

Harry didn't bother to point out that he _had_ told him exactly what was behind the door before he'd looked.

.oOo.

The next morning, as they headed down to breakfast, Harry told Ron about the package Hagrid had taken from Gringotts and how he was sure it was now hidden under the trap door that the dog was guarding. Their conversation was interrupted by a commotion outside the great hall though.

Malfoy was being dragged through the entrance hall towards the dungeons by Filch, and was crying out in indignation, "I didn't DO anything! You can't treat me like this you foul- Just you wait until my FATHER hears about this!"

But Filch wasn't listening, he was in mid rant himself, "Spoiled, disrespectful little brats. Think it's funny to waste my time. Sending me on wild goose chases while they run amok. We'll see how funny you think it is when you're in detention for a month."

Harry and Ron grinned at each other as Harry said, "I told you it was a good idea."


	9. Year One: Early Arrival

**_Mako's Message:_**_ -sigh- Better late than never, and better something than nothing, right? Not much to say that won't spoil the one interesting thing in here__, but I will promise that it wont be this long before the next updated._

_I should really make a schedule for myself or something..._

* * *

Harry's thrill at outwitting Draco was quickly overwhelmed by the arrival of a package that was unmistakably, at least to him, a broomstick. The note that came with it said not to open it at the table, so perhaps it wouldn't be that obvious to anyone else, or it was just a subtle hint to keep it out of sight.

Either way, he took the broom and Ron, after quickly showing him the note, and ran from Great Hall, eager to open it somewhere private.

"I really should send Draco a 'Thank You' note," Harry said as they climbed the stairs, nodding hello to Professor Flitwick as they passed, "I mean, if he hadn't stolen Neville's Rememberall I wouldn't be on the team."

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" came the angry voice of Hermione as she stomped up the stairs after them.

"No," Harry said. Two or three clever remarks came to mind, but he didn't really want to start a fight with Hermione. He wasn't sure why, as he wasn't exactly close with her. But then...

The three stared at each other for a moment before Hermione sniffed and walked off.

For most of the day Harry's mind was filled with thoughts of the broom lying under his bed and Quidditch. However, towards the end of lunch, something caught his attention.

"Miss Tonks, you will put your hair back, this instant." he heard Professor McGonagall admonish.

"Oh come on, Professor-"

"We do have a dress code, you know, and your hair is violating it. Put it back."

He whipped his head around, scanning the great hall for the girl the Professor was talking to, and managed to spot a flash of red before it faded to black. He wasn't able to see her face in the crowd though. He lifted up in his seat, trying to see over the other students.

"What's up mate? What're you looking for?" Ron asked.

"Not what. Who."

"Alright, who're you looking for?"

"I... don't know. A girl. Tonks."

Ron didn't bother hiding his amused confusion, "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I just heard her name. But I didn't see her face. She had red hair and then she changed it back to black."

"So? You can charm your hair any color you want."

"I..." Why _had_ this caught his attention? He'd seen more bizarre things than changing hair color in his short time at Hogwarts already. What was so special about this? It wasn't even the hair that caught his attention, now that he thought about it. He'd started paying attention when he heard her name...

"I think I know her."

Ron paused with his fork halfway to his mouth, "You think you know her, but you don't know who she is or what she looks like." He laughed, "You sure can be weird sometimes." Then he pointed at the barely touched plate of food in front of Harry, "You going to finish that?"

Harry, who had still been looking over towards the Hufflepuff table, turned back, "What? Oh, sure, take it," and pushed the plate towards his friend then turned back, once again trying to catch sight of this mysterious "Miss Tonks"

His search was put to an abrupt end, however, when the group of seventh and sixth year Hufflpuffs he'd been searching for some sign of a familiar face abruptly stood and headed out of the hall en mass.

He'd spent the rest of the day scanning the halls and grounds for an unknown but familiar face or brightly colored hair, and was relieved when it was finally time to head down to the Quidditch pitch for his first training session with Wood. Once there, he felt awed by how unimpressed he was with the stadium. It was truly magnificent, and yet it felt as ordinary as Hogwarts itself had when he'd first seen it. He couldn't help but feel saddened and a bit cheated by this. Still, he knew that no matter how unimpressive he was finding the field it couldn't do a thing to dampen the exhilaration he felt when flying.

And with that thought he vaulted onto his broom and launched himself into the air.

He threaded his way through the goal posts and the stands, swooping and looping, climbing and diving only to pull up again at the last second and continuing on low enough to skim the grass with his toes. It truly was the greatest sensation he could imagine, the feeling of being completely free. Free of worries, restrictions, gravity, even destiny.

As he corkscrewed up into the air, he spotted Wood on the ground, staring up him. He dove down and hopped off his broom before it had come to a stop a few feet from him grinning from ear to ear.

Wood looked at him with amazement and confusion, "That- McGonagall said that you'd never flown before you came to Hogwarts…"

"I hadn't."

Wood whistled as he ran his fingers through his hiar, "You really are a natural. No wonder she insisted you be on the team." With a quick shake of his head he was all business, "Now, I'm only going to be explaining the rules this evening, then you'll be joining the team practices three times a week."

Harry's spirit fell, "We're not going to practice? But I already know the rules."

Wood's confusion was back, "How's that? I thought you lived with muggles."

"Well, I do, but – here, look," and he knelt in front of the wooden chest and quickly popped it open, "He pointed to the large red ball, "The Quaffle; passed between the three Chasers and used to score goals in one of the three hoops for ten points" He pointed to Wood, "Keeper; guards goal posts to prevent scoring." Then to the two smaller, black, restrained balls, "Bludgers; fly around the pitch trying to unseat the other players, the two Beaters defend their team while trying to knock the Bludgers towards the opposing team." Then he pointed at himself, "Seeker, most important and frequently injured player on a team, seeks and catches the Snitch," he said while plucking the small golden ball in question from it's spot in the chest and holding it up, allowing it's wings to unfold and begin to flutter, "Earning the team one-hunderd-and-fifty points and ending the game."

"Well, it seems you're familiar with the game after all, but be careful with that Potter, it's getting dark and if we lose sight of it we might lose it entirely," and he reached for the Snitch, only for it to zip to the side, "Oh, no, quick, grab it before it gets away." But no sooner had he said the words than it zigzagged up a few feet and out of arms reach before streaking off in the air.

Wood groaned but Harry just grinned, "Don't worry, I've got it." And he hopped onto his broom and flew off after it.

A minute later Harry handed the glittering ball back to a stunned Wood. He looked at the ball for a moment before his face split into a near manic grin, "Do it again."

Twenty minutes and five catches later, with the sun disappearing behind the horizon, Wood was practically skipping as the two headed back to the castle.

"Oh, we've got the Quidditch Cup in the _bag _this year Harry. There's no way the other teams can outfly you. You keep catching the snitch like that and this'll be the shortest Quidditch season yet."

Harry starred at his feet to hide his embarrassment, "Well, don't get so set on it, I could get injured you know. Get hit by a rogue bludger or something."

Wood rounded on him, aghast, "Don't say such things. You'll be fine. With the way you fly I've yet to see the Bludger that could hit you," and then he turned, "And honestly, a rogue bludger? Who's ever heard of such a thing?"

Harry chuckled, but he really didn't feel any better about his chances of making it through the school year without ending up in the hospital wing.


	10. Year One: Trios, Triumphs, and Tumbles

**_Mako's Message:_**_ Hey people. Sorry it was so long since the last update. I didn't forget about this. Just having a hard time writing this story for some reason. This _IS_ the longest chapter I've written in years though, so that's something._

_I think I'll dedicate this chapter to_ chelseyb1010 _since she was the biggest help in getting this written. she may also get the next one. When you get to the end you'll see why._

_Anyway, enough of me, enjoy the story!_

Oh, and sign the petition at

**change **dot** org **slash** petitions **slash** fanfiction-net-stop-the-destruction-of-fanfiction-net **

please.

* * *

Between Quidditch practices(which even had Alicia, Katie, and Angelina confidently strutting around the castle) and the homework increasing now that the teachers felt the students had a firm grasp on the basics, his quest to find Tonks, whoever she was, ground to a halt.

Not that he'd really been getting anywhere in the first place. For a school that honestly wasn't that big, it had proven frustratingly difficult to find her. He looked around anytime he heard her name mentioned, but was never able to spot her. The few times he'd actually asked the older Hufflepuff girls about her they'd just giggle and suggest he go talk to girls his own age. A couple of times though, there'd been a girl in the group who'd just grin when he asked for Tonks and say that she hadn't seen her, which the other girls always seemed to find hilarious. Something about that seemed suspicious to him, but he was probably just being paranoid.

For some reason the closer they got to Halloween the twitchier he got. By the time Halloween finally arrived he was jumping at the slightest sounds, checking closets, tapestries, and even chairs to make sure there was nothing waiting to jump out at him. When Ron asked him what was the matter at breakfast, Harry, whose eyes kept darting around the room muttered something that sounded like "Constant vigilance."

Despite all of that Harry still couldn't understand why everyone was having such a hard time with the levitation spell. They'd been practicing the swish-and-flick wand motion and the spell itself wasn't exactly difficult, "Wing-_gar_-dium Levi-_o_-sa". Yet very few people were getting so much as a quiver out of their feathers, though Harry did find Ron's increasingly ridiculous attempts(he was currently waving his arms, including the one not holding his wand, around like a windmill) to levitate the feather he shared with Hermione entertaining. Finally he stopped Seamus from prodding their feather with his wand("You're going to set it on fire if you keep that up."), and with a swish and flick of his wand said "Wingardium leviosa," and levitated his feather off the desk. He noticed that Hermione was looking pleased with herself and Ron was looking extremely annoyed as she levitated their feather into the air as well.

As Professor Flitwick congratulated them on being the first to manage it, an idea popped into Harry's head.

Taking careful aim, Harry flicked his wand and sent his feather shooting across the room like an arrow and straight for Hermione's. She gasped at their feathers nearly collided, and Harry turned his feather around and sent it back at hers. She quickly moved her feather out of the way as Harry's zoomed past. Before he could make another pass at it, Flitwick interrupted, "That's enough of that Mr. Potter. Any more fooling around and I'll be deducting points."

"Sorry, Professor," Harry said while looking at his shoes, then he looked up to smile at Hermione only to find her glaring back at him.

As class ended and they all filed out into the hall, Ron came up behind Harry and clapped him on the back, "Way to show her up Harry. That bossy know-it-all needed to be taken down a peg. Honestly, it's no surprise that no one can stand her."

And at that moment Hermione shoved past Harry, nearly knocking him into Ron as she hurried past them.

"Ron!" Harry snapped and glared at his friend.

"What?" He said, sounding more ashamed than he was trying to, "She must have noticed by now she doesn't have any friends."

Harry continued to glare at Ron, "I'm her friend."

Harry tried to catch up to her and apologize, but Hermione was long gone. He kicked Ron in the shin when he caught up to him.

"What was that for!" he cried, hopping on one foot and rubbing his leg.

"Hermione you git! She's probably going to spend the rest of the day crying in the bathroom because of you."

He muttered something that sounded like, "She wouldn't miss classes" as they walked off to their next lesson, but Harry was right about one thing at least. Hermione wasn't to be found for the rest of the afternoon.

"I don't understand why you're so angry about this," Ron said as he leapt out of the way of Harry's attempt to stomp on his foot after they'd walked into the Great Hall to find that Hermione was still in hiding.

"Because she's our friend!" Harry said, "At least she was trying to be, and you really hurt her feelings."

"She's got a funny way of showing it."

"Would you try to stop Draco from getting in trouble?"

"No."

"What about me?"

Ron just looked at him with a confused expression.

"Oh, never mind!" Harry said and stalked off to the table and sat down heavily.

He did have to admit that he wasn't sure _why_ this was upsetting him so much, and decided to chalk it up to his fraying nerves. Now if only he knew why he felt like the sky was going to fall on him. It wasn't long before he got his answer.

As Harry sat, nervously bouncing his leg under the table and toying with his wand on top of it, he discovered he had no appetite what-so-ever. Neville tried talking him into eating something before Ron ate it all himself, and it was just as Harry smirked at the joke that Professor Quirell came sprinting into the hall and up to the staff table. Harry sat bolt upright as he reached the table and said, "Troll," before Quirell could even speak and bolted from the Hall.

A few people watched him run off, some even laughing about it, but he was quickly forgotten in the pandemonium that followed the announcement of a troll in the dungeons.

As the other students were being led back to their dormitories, Harry rushed to find Hermione. He wouldn't notice any of this until later, but Harry did not look anywhere for Hermione, he ran unerringly to the bathroom in which she sat crying. He threw the door open hard enough for it to bang off the wall and stepped inside, "Hermione!"

The sniffling coming from the stall at the end stopped, and after a second a slightly confused voice said, "Harry?"

Relieved, Harry let out an explosive breath, "Hermione, we've got to-"

"Harry, this is a GIRLS bathroom! Get out!"

He ran over and threw open the door to the stall she sat in. Ignoring her shriek of shock, outrage, and embaresment, he said, "We've got to go, there's a-" but as she reached for her arm she knocked his hand away.

"Honestly! Have you no manners at all? Bursting not only into a girls bathroom but just throwing open the door without even bothering to ask if I was" her tirade faltered for a moment before said, "using it." But she quickly regained her steam, "You're always flouting rules rules and showing off and I'm not having anything to do with you Harry Potter, so you can just turn right around and leave or I'll tell McGonagall about this."

Harry blinked. "Whatever," She obviously didn't understand the situation, "tell her whatever you want but let's GO!" And he reached out and grabbed a fistful of her robes and yanked her to her feet and started to pull her out of the stall.

This only served to outrage Hermione even more. "Let GO of me! I'm not going ANYWHERE with you!" she cried as she dug in her heals and grabbed for the door frame.

"Hermione! This is an emergency there's a-" again Hermione interrupted him, but this time it was by screaming in fear.

Harry whipped his head around to find a troll that was easily twelve feet tall, staring at them, it's eyes wide in surprise. Then it squinted at them, grunted, and raised it's club.

Harry shoved himself and Hermione apart just before the club came down, cratering the floor right where they had been standing. Hermione continued to scream, which kept the troll's attention on her. As he raised it's club again, realizing that Hermione was not going to move on her own, Harry dove in front of her, pointed his wand and shouted, "Win_gar_diumlevi_o_sa!"

The troll's great fist swung down. The club did not.

Hermione, who had been cringing in fear, peaked out from behind her arms in confusion, while the troll looked uncomprehendingly at it's clubless hand. After a moment, it looked up towards where it last knew it had had the club, and found it hovering over his shoulder. Harry, who's heart had finally calmed down to a level below "reflexive panic" and he was able think again, quickly moved the club away just as the troll made a grab for it.

Then, with a flick of his wrist, Harry sent the club rocketing across the bathroom, impacting the trolls head with a crack that echoed like thunder in the high ceilinged room and leaving it momentarily teetering on one leg before crashing to the floor, crushing two stalls in the process.

It was then that Ron came running in, followed closely by Percy and Professor McGonagall.

They stopped and stared. "Bloody hell!" Ron gasped.

"Weasley! Language!"

"Sorry Professor."

McGonagall stepped forward, "Would either of you like to explain what happened here, as well as why neither of you went to your dormitories as instructed?"

"Hermione didn't know about troll," Harry answered quickly, "She wasn't at the feast, so when I heard about the troll I knew I had to go tell her."

"And why did you have to do this personally, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked, "Why couldn't you have told a prefect that Miss Granger was missing? Or one of your Professors? Like Mr. Weasley did?"

"I...uh..." Harry had no answer to that. As soon as he knew about the troll he'd acted without thought. "I don't know, Professor," he said, staring at the floor, "I just knew Hermione was in trouble and I had to save her."

"Honestly. Of all the reckless, dangerous things to-"

"Please Professor," Hermione interrupted, "There wouldn't have been any time. Harry just barely got here in time. If he'd waited to tell a teacher..." Hermione bit her lip as she looked down at the hole in the floor.

McGonagall pressed her lips tightly together, "Be that as it may, you both could have been killed. Honestly, two first years against a fully grown mountain troll? I don't know how you managed it."

"Harry used a levitation spell to hit it with it's own club," Hermione said, with a quick glance at Harry and a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Indeed?" McGonagall's eyebrows raised a bit. "Creative. However, for the reckless endangerment of yourself and Miss Granger I deduct twenty points. I will grant you five points for creative use of a levitation charm though, and another five for the concern and bravery you showed in regards to Miss Grangers safety." Then she turned to Ron, "And for alerting a prefect and myself to the situation, Mr. Weasely, I award you fifteen points."

Ron looked awkwardly around the room, looking like he wasn't sure if he should be happy or embarrassed. It seemed he made up his mind after Percy smiled and patted him on the shoulder and his face flushed a bright red.

"Now, Mr. Weasley," McGonagall addressed Percy, "Please take them back to your common room."

"Of course Professor."

As Percy led them through the halls, back to Gryffindor tower, he commended Ron, "It was very good of you to come to me of course. If Harry had told me that Hermione was missing in the first place instead of running off, Professor McGonagall and I could have gotten there before there was any danger and we could have avoided loosing any points at all."

Ron meanwhile, look too embarrassed to speak, and Harry didn't blame him. He was quite sure that Fred and George would never let him hear the end of how he'd run to a Prefect for help, let alone that he'd gone to _Percy_ of all people.

Hermione, on the other hand, was confusing to Harry. She was acting...shy. Normally the girl would never hesitate to tell them what she thought about anything, but not she was almost refusing to even look at Harry, and when he did manage to catch her eye she blushed and quickly turned away.

.oOo.

Harry felt more at home at Hogwarts than ever over the next few weeks. Ron and Hermione were with him almost all the time, and Ron was making an effort to be nicer to Hermione. Though whether it was out of guilt for making her run off on Halloween, or because of Harry's anger at him hurting her feelings Harry didn't know.

Hermione, for her part, was being far less bossy and had relaxed a bit in regards to rule breaking. She now spent her time trying to make sure that they didn't get caught, rather than trying to stop them. She also helped them with their homework, though she refused to let Ron copy her work.

Neville also started spending more time with them, after seeing how Hermione's help had improved Harry and Ron's marks. He liked hanging out with just Ron and Hermione best, Harry didn't mind. Neville could use all the help he could get, after all, and if he was honest he kind of liked the extra company. Just not all the time.

Neville's occasional pressence in their group did make him feel like there was something missing. How this turned into him asking if Ron had been writing to his sister he wasn't sure.

Quidditch season was also approaching, and his friends presence at the practices kept his spirits up, despite the rapidly dropping temperatures. They were the only ones allowed anywhere near their practice sessions though, as they wanted to make sure that the other teams were completely unprepared for Harry. In fact, the only reason Ron and Hermione were allowed at the pitch at all was Hermione's talent for creating bottled fire which was much appreciated by the rest of the team.

After seeing Harry fly though, Ron and Hermione didn't think it'd be possible for them to be prepared for Harry even if they watched every practice and took notes.

.oOo.

The first match of the season didn't go as smoothly as everyone expected however.

The Gryffindor Chasers easily outmatched the Slytherin's in skill, but the Slytherin team's tendency to play light and fast with the rules left them trailing. Snitch was also being highly evasive, neither Seeker catching a glimpse of it for several minutes. When it did finally make an appearance, it was almost too easy. Harry's broom was much faster than his opponents, which forced Flint to try and block him. But Harry was a far better flier than Flint gave him credit for and he simply corkscrewed around him and snatched the snitch.

Harry drifted slowly over to Flint, who seemed to be trying to burst a blood vessel in his head, holding the snitch between his forfinger and thumb and said, "Ya know, you should put Malfoy on your team. Then these matches might actually be interesting," Then he grinned and flew down to where his team was already celebrating.

And that was when his broom suddenly, and without reason, accelerated and dipped sharply, ploughing into the dirt and sending Harry tumbling head over heals across the pitch.

.oOo.

When Harry's eyes opened again, it was dark his whole body ached, and he was in the hospital wing. He sat up and looked around for a moment then flopped back onto the bed and tried to sleep again.

_I didn't even make it until the end of the year._

.oOo.

The next morning he woke up feeling much better and he suspected that whatever Madame Pomfrey had given him had finished doing whatever it was it was supposed to do.

Madame Pomfrey noticed he was up almost instantly, and came over to check on him, lighting the tip of her wand and having him follow the light with his eyes, "That was quite a nasty spill you took Mr. Potter. That's exactly the sort of thing we try to prevent by not allowing first years their own brooms, you know."

"It wasn't my fault." he murmered, his throat very dry.

"I'm sure it wasn't."

"So you didn't taunt Flint after catching the snitch, causing him to hex you?"

"I..." what? "Flint did it?"

"Well, if he didn't he was going to. He had his wand drawn. The Heads of Houses are still investigating."

"How long was I out?"

"Oh, only a few hours. The match was yesterday."

Harry grunted, "Good. I was afraid I'd been out for days."

"I assure you it would take something far more severe than crashing a broomstick to put you out of commission for days under my watch Potter. You should be fine now, and you may go down to breakfast if you wish."

As Harry got to his feet he asked, "Is my broom okay?"

Madame Pomfrey turned and said, "I assure you I don't know. You'll have to take that up with Professors McGonagall and Flitwick."

On his way down to great hall, he ran into Ron and Hermione. "Oy. Great to see you're up and about mate," Ron said, clapping him on the shoulder.

"We were bringing you breakfast," Hermione said, holding up a plate of toast.

Harry smiled gratefully, "Thanks. You two are the greatest. Do you mind if we eat in the common room? I'd rather not see anyone."

"You know nobody thinks you did that on your own, right?" Hermione asked.

"Still."

The common room was empty, and Harry was able to eat in peace. More or less.

"Harry!" cried one of the twins as he came back through the portrait hole.

"Glad to see you up and about mate," the other said.

"I'd steer clear of wood though."

"He'll be so happy to see you alive he just might hug you hard enough to put you back in the hospital."

"Do you know what happened to my broom?"

The twins shook their heads, "Sorry. Nobody's sure who hexed-"

"-or jinxed-"

"-you. McGonnagal and Flitwick are still examining your broom."

"Snape and Dubledore questioned the Slytherin team."

Harry caught the quick glance Ron and Hermione shot each other, and he had a feeling he knew what they were thinking. "But my broom is in one piece, right?"

"Oh. Yeah," The twins waved it off, "It's fine. Assuming it wasn't cursed, you should have it back soon. And even if it was I'm sure Mcgonagall wouldn't have any trouble getting you another after how easily you caught the snitch."

Harry grinned, "Well, the broom did most of the work. If it ever comes down to a race I'll win without a problem." Then he shrugged, "At least until the 2001's come out."

The Weasley's laughed. "A Nimbus 2001? Be serious. When they come out with another nimbus they wouldn't call it the '2001'.

"Yeah, it'd be the '3000' or something like that."

"And the Nimbus 2000 just came out. They wont have a better broom ready for years.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Harry muttered into his toast.

After the twins had left and it was just the three of them again, "Okay, so, what was that glance about earlier?"

His two friends looked at each other for a moment before Ron said, "We think it was Snape."

Harry could immediately see why they'd think that, but he was still sure that, "It wasn't him."

The two of them stared at Harry in shock, "What?"

Harry shrugged, "He may be a greasy git but he's still a teacher. He's not going to try and kill me."

There was a moment of silence during which Harry got the impression that neither of his friends had considered that what had happened to him might have been attempted murder.

Then Hermione continued on, "But Harry, I saw him. Snape was staring at you and muttering something under his breath just before you lost control of your broom. I'm sure he did it!"

Harry shook his head, "I believe you saw him do that Hermione, but if he was cursing me I'm sure it was the muggle kind. I mean, why would he even want to hurt me badly enough that he'd try something like that in front of everyone? Because I beat his team? Surely he couldn't be _that_ petty."

Ron's expression seemed to say that he _did_ think Snape could be that petty.

.oOo.

Harry managed to get through the rest of the day by simply ignoring the alternating cheers for his quick catch of the snitch and the taunting for his last second crash(most of which came the Slytherins).

After his last class he sought out Professor McGonagall to ask about his broom.

"It hasn't been tampered with, as far as we can tell Mr. Potter," she said "It'll be fine for you to ride during your next practice."

"Uh," Harry said, "I was actually hoping I could have it now."

McGonagall looked at him sharply, "Whatever for? Surely you don't want to ride it now. You only got out of the hospital wing this morning."

But that was exactly what he wanted, "Well, you said it was fine, so I don't think we need to worry about it crashing itself, and I'd like to know if the broom was damaged in the crash, since if it was I'll need to get used to a different broom as soon as possible."

McGonagall did not look pleased, but his logic and her own desire to win the Quidditch cup won out in the end and she returned his broom.

He immediately left the castle for the pitch, without speaking to anyone. He hadn't mentioned it to McGonagall, but even though he felt fine now, he wanted to make sure he could still fly without freezing up, or fear of getting too close to the ground.

And it turned out he couldn't.

Until that day he'd been able to skim the ground low enough to feel his toes brush the grass, but now every time he tried to dive he kept pulling up and leveling out at about ten feet off the ground. That just wouldn't do.

So he kept trying. He'd fly as high as he could, and he'd dive as fast and as hard as he could, doing his best to force himself not to pull up. He knew he could do this. He HAD done this. He just needed to beat his own subconcious.

He finally decided to call it quits for the day after he'd managed to drop his minimum flight height to a mere five feet. Still not good enough, but an improvement.

He did a few lazy laps around the pitch to relax before going in, and that was when he noticed the girl sitting in the stands watching him. He didn't know when she'd arrived and despite her looking to be about his own age he didn't recognize her.

He landed at the bottom of the stands, intending to talk to her, and it seemed she had the same thought as she was already heading down the steps towards him.

"That was some pretty impressive flying," she said, as soon as they were close enough to hear each other clearly. "Ya know, aside from the whole not-being-able-to-get-near-the-ground pa-AAAHH!" she cried as she tripped on her robes, and fell forward, crashing into Harry and knocking them both down the steps and fortunately landing on the soft grass pitch. The landing was probably softer for the girl though, as she landed firmly on top of Harry.

His face was smashed by her chest, but still he managed to say, "Hello, Tonks."


	11. Year One: Tonks

_**Mako's**** Message: **Damn it's been awhile hasn't it? To everyone who came here because of an alert, thanks for coming back. I really appreciate it. This chapter was actually going to be about twice as long, but the title of this chapter has been "Tonks" for the entirety of it's existence, and when I realized Tonks wasn't going to be in the rest of the chapter, I said to myself, "Ya know, we could end the chapter right here, get it up, finally, and then have some time to work on the rest of this." and Myself thought about that for a minute and said to I, "That's actually a really good idea. Let's do it!"  
_

_And so here we are. Hope you enjoy it._

* * *

Tonks groaned as she pushed herself up and off of Harry, "How'd you know it was me?"

As Harry brought himself up into a sitting position and adjusted his glasses he said, "Because there are only two people in this school that clumsy and you aren't Neville Longbottom."

Tonks let out a short bark of a laugh, "I guess my reputation precedes me." She then leaned back on the grass and said, "All right, you caught me. So, what'd you want?"

Harry suddenly stopped, "What?"

"Why've you been looking for me?"

That...was not an answer Harry knew. Harry shrugged, "I just wanted to talk to you, I guess."

Tonks looked at him curiously, "But why? What did you want to talk to me about?"

Harry tried to come up with an answer to that. He really did. But he just didn't have one, and that fact made him want to rip his own hair out. "I don't know," he finally said, "I heard Professor McGonagall tell you to change your hair back in the Great Hall and the second I heard your name I wanted to talk to you." When he looked at her again, she was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"That is so cute," she said, reaching out and ruffling his hair, "Tell me more about how you just had to talk to me."

"I don't know what else there is to say, I just knew you were—" he looked up to see her grin had grown even wider, "You're teasing me aren't you?"

"Oh, I was, but please, go on," she said with a wave of her hand, "You knew I was what?"

Honestly wanting to get to the bottom of this, Harry took a moment to think about what words came to mind when he thought of Tonks. He came up with, "Cool, funny," She started smiling, a little too much, "Clumsy." she glowered at him, _Remus,_ "Cute."

"Ooo. I've never had a first year with a crush on me. And it's Harry Potter too."

Harry blushed.

"How're you handling it all?"

Harry blinked, "Sorry. Handling what?"

"All this," she said, gesturing around her, "The fame, the magic. I heard you were raised by some muggles and didn't know about any of this until you got your letter."

_Oh. That._ "I'm...handling it alright," he paused, "It all just feels really familiar though..."

Tonks nodded, "I heard you're something of a legend among the first years for being able to find your way around without any problems."

"So it's not normal to find your way around that easily?"

Tonks shook her head, "Not for the first few months," she smiled, "I still think the castle likes to confuse the ickle firsties as a way to welcome them to the school. Mcgonagall says that the castle isn't that sentient though."

Harry frowned as he thought about that, "I wouldn't be so sure."

When Tonks didn't respond, Harry looked up to see her looking at him and smiling bemusedly, "You're one strange kid, Potter."

Harry's expression turned downcast. Even in a school full of magic he was weird. Sure he'd suspected

as much, but to have it confirmed like that just put a damper on his mood.

"Hey, what's with the frown?"

Harry sighed, "I'm just tired of being a freak."

"Hey now, I never said you were a freak. I said you were strange, and I meant that in a good way."

Harry cocked an eyebrow at her.

"For example," she started, "You're the only first year this year who has never gotten lost, you're the first first year ever to stand up to Snape, and you seem to know more about the school than the professors."

Harry blushed, "I don't know why I haven't gotten lost, Hermione could have answered those questions better, and with all the magic, mischief, and mayhem going on this place how could it not be sentient?"

Tonks grinned, "Might want to leave those last two off if you talk about this with anyone else. The Weasly Twins might try to take credit."

Harry laughed, "Them or The Marauders."

Tonks looked at him sharply,"Who?"

"What?" Harry blinked back.

Tonks looked at Harry curiously, "What did you just say?"

"Uh..." Harry paused, "The Marauders?"

"Wow." Tonks exhaled, "I didn't think you'd know about them. How _did_ you find out about them?"

Once again, Harry was caught in the awkward position of blurting something out and not knowing where it had come from, "I...don't really remember. I must have overheard someone talking about them."

Tonks thought about it for a moment, then nodded, "Probably one of the teachers. I shouldn't be surprised really, considering," she said with a grin.

Again, Harry felt like he should know what she was talking about, but he just couldn't grasp it. He decided to let it go, "So, how about you? I could have sworn you were a seventh year, but you look about my age."

Tonks "humphed" turned away, her nose up in air, "Obviously you're still too young to know not to insult a girl's figure like that."

Harry tried to stammer out an apoloogy, but was cut off by Tonk's laughter, "I'm just messing with you. I'm a metamorphamgus, which means I can change my appearance."

Harry's jaw dropped in both shock and outrage as he pointed a finger at her accusingly, "I must have talked to you a dozen times trying to find you!"

The cheshire cat grin was back, "Yup."

He shoved her playfully as she laughed, knocking her onto her side.

She didn't get up, merely resting her head on her hand and smiling while still laying on the ground, "You're a cool kid, Potter. We'll have to hang out more."

Harry thought he'd like that very much.

.oOo.

It was the next day that Harry saw Tonks again, though he didn't recognize her. She came over to where he was eating lunch with Ron and Hermione, who were still discussing why Snape would want to kill Harry, looking like she might have been a third year. She sat down next to him without so much as a "May I?" and took a sandwich off a platter before even acknowledging that Ron and Hermione were staring at her. Even then all she did was nudge Harry and say, "Wotcher."

"Who are you?" Ron asked, "And why are you sitting with us? There are plenty of other seats open."

"I'm more interested in why she's even at this table," Hermione said, looking pointedly at Tonk's Hufflepuff tie.

"I'm here to see Harry of course," she said as if it where the most obvious thing in the world.

"Harry, do you know her?" Hermione asked.

Harry took a moment to respond, as he was still looking at Tonks bemusedly, "There's something different about you but I just can't place it."

Tonks smirked back at him, "I changed my hair," she said while pushing a blond lock behind her ear, "Do you like it?"

Harry's eyes quickly glanced up and down her new body, "It works."

Tonks just smiled back at him while Ron and Hermione watched in confusion, though there might have been a slight bit of alarm in Hermione's expression as well.

"So," Tonks said, finally addressing Harry's friends, "You two don't mind if I borrow Harry for lunch do you?"

Ron's mouth was too busy hanging open to form words, though Hermione managed an "Uh-" before Tonk's said, "Great!", wrapped up a couple sandwiches in a napkin, grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him up and along the aisle without any resistance. On their way out of the Great Hall, they shoved past Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, leaving Malfoy watching them go as if the world had suddenly gone drastically off script.

It wasn't until they were halfway to the lake that Tonks slowed down and they both burst out laughing. "Di-did you see your friends faces?" she gasped out.

"For-forget their faces, did you see _Draco's_ face?"

She laughed and said, "Oh yeah, that little snot needs to get his world shook up every now and then so he doesn't keep thinking he's the center of everything," as she started walking towards the lake again.

"Ya know, I've been thinking about you," Harry said.

"Oh have you?" Tonks said with a grin.

"Yeah. You have me at a disadvantage."

Tonks stopped, "Oh?"

"Yeah. I'm Harry Potter, pretty much everyone knows my life story, but I hardly know anything about you."

Tonks laughed, "I'm sure I don't know as much about you as you think."

"Oh come on. If I so much as sneeze the whole school starts whispering about it."

Tonks laughed again and Harry found he was really enjoying the sound of it, "I guess you're right. It's not every year we have a celebrity come to Hogwarts after all. I'm sure they'll get bored with you by the end of the year, end of second year at the latest."

A flurry of images flew through Harry's mind like a half remembered dream, "I wish I could believe that."

Tonks smirked at him, "Well, if you keep pulling stunts like the one at the last quidditch match then they probably wont."

"See, and we're talking about me again. I want to hear about you."

"What do you want to know?"

Harry shrugged, "Anything, really. Whatever you feel like sharing with me."

"Hmm…" Tonks said, tapping her finger against her lips as she looked out over the lake, "Well, there was this time in third year."

And Tonks spent the rest of lunch walking around the lake with Harry, telling him stories about her own time at Hogwarts and her summers at home.

It was strange. Harry barely knew this girl, but for some reason it felt like all her stories where just filling in blanks. And worse than that, were the images that kept coming up; people and places he'd never seen. The most bothersome and embarrassing of which was an image of her in his room.

"Oh, this is a good one, in sixth year-" she stopped suddenly and said, "Actually, nevermind, you're a little young for that one," and ruffled his hair.

Harry was confused and annoyed by that statement, but only for about two seconds before his eyes narrowed as he realized exactly what that meant, "You're horrible."

"Oh, maybe someday you'll find out just how horrible," she said with a grin.

Harry blushed furiously while Tonks laughed at him.

The next day things played out similarly, only Tonks appeared at their table as a red-headed second year girl. He found he liked the red better than the blond.

This time though, Tonks insisted that he share some more of his stories. Specifically, she wanted full details about the troll. She seemed suitably impressed by his tale, so he decided to also mention a story only three others new about; the encounter with Fluffy.

"Wait," Tonks stopped him, "That corridor is forbidden because there's a _Cerberus_ in it?"

"Well, yes."

"What sort of lunatic keeps a Cerberus in a _school_!"

Harry grinned, "That's what Ron said."

"You're all lucky you didn't get your heads bitten off."

Harry shrugged, "It's not like we went in there with it, we just peaked. Honestly, I think Fluffy was just as surprised to have the door suddenly open as we were to see it. It didn't even react until after I'd closed the door."

"Yeah, well still- wait. Fluffy? Where did you get 'fluffy' from?"

"Uhm," Harry thought about it for a minute, but the only answer he could come up with was "because that's his name". What he actually told her though was, "It just seemed appropriate."

"Fluffy. For a giant, three headed dog? Yeah, sure, why not? You're starting to sound like Hagrid."

"I like Hagrid."

"Oh, nothing against him, I'd just go with something more like 'ripper' if I was going name one."

Harry laughed, "He does seem to give the most dangerous creatures the most innocent names. I mean, Fang is a total coward and wouldn't hurt a fly."

"I can just imagine him naming a dragon 'Dennis'. 'Dennis the Dragon'"

"Norbert, the Norwegian Ridgeback."

"That's perfect!" Tonks laughed, "How do you come up with this stuff?"

Harry just shook his head.

.oOo.

When snow covered the school grounds, Tonks settled on one form (That of a nondescript brunette of indeterminate age with brown eyes who didn't wear any house colors.) to use when she joined Harry and his friends for lunch, which became a common, though not daily, occurrence

. Hermione seemed more irritated by the presence of this new and unidentified girl that had suddenly inserted herself into their group than she had with the two that had dragged Harry off for walks around the grounds, but she kept her opinions to herself. Mostly.

Ron however was just confused as to who this girl was and where she'd come from. Both questions

he asked every time she sat down with them, and every time they were ignored. The only question he asked that she answered was, "Why are you here?" ("To talk with Harry.")

Gradually they grew used to her presence, even if they didn't exactly like her, and by the time the Christmas holiday rolled around they tolerated her.

That didn't stop Hermione from nearly throwing a fit when she snuck into the Gryffindor common room the night before leaving for Christmas break.

"Hey Harry," she said, nearly landing in his lap as she threw herself onto the couch beside him, and then throwing her legs over his lap as she leaned back against the arm of the couch.

Hermione started spluttering before Harry was able to respond himself, finally spitting out, "Harry is not a cushion!" and shoving Tonk's legs off of him. "And what are you even doing here? You're not-" she paused and dropped her voice down, "You're not in did you get that tie!" she hissed.

"Oh, this?" she said, lifting up the Gryffindor tie around her neck, "I have my ways. Anyway, I just came by to say goodbye to Harry and give him his Christmas present," she said, putting her nose up in the air. Then she added, "And I happen to think Harry makes an excellent pillow," and spun around to rest her head in Harry's lap.

Hermione gasped in shock and outrage and Ron had to physically restrain her from attacking the other girl, "Seriously Hermione, since when do I have to stop _you_ from getting us in trouble?"

Tonks giggled at Hermione's antics while Harry tried to stop his face from turning the same color as Ron's hair. Finally she pulled a small box from her pocket and handed it to Harry, "Don't open it until Christmas," she said, poking him on the nose. And with that she stood up, said, "Well, my work here is done. See you all after the holidays," gave a cheeky little wave and disappeared through the portrait hole.

Once she was gone Hermione said, "Honestly, Ron, you can let go. I'm not going to chase her down."

Ron reluctantly released her and she straightened her robes out before finally saying, "Who IS that girl Harry? And how was she able to get in here?"

Harry sighed, deciding it was finally time for their game to end, "That was Tonks."

Both Ron and Hermione froze, "I-You said Tonks was a sixth or seventh year."

"She was also the two girls I went for walks with, and yes, she's a seventh year."

"But...how is she..." Ron started.

"She's a Metamorphmagus," Hermione answered quietly, still in bit of shock.

"Yeah," Harry said, "How'd you know?"

"I-When I heard that McGonagall could turn into a cat at will, I got curious about it and so I looked up animagi and one of the books mention metamorphmagi as well. I don't really know anything more about them though. The book was pretty basic. I should have guessed that's what she was. But they're so rare..."

"Well, that's also your answer for how she got in. Probably disguised herself as Neville and just asked someone for the password. As for how she got the tie, well, she is a seventh year," he said with a sheepish sort of grin.

After a moment for that to sink in, Hermione blushed scarlet while Ron just looked confused.


End file.
